Oh okay, yeah I really misunderstood you. I'm not sure how much that would have changed things for the average user (mom & dad computer illiterate types) but I agree with you on the whole.

I moved from Win7 to Win8 as I'd read that Win8 was a bit more efficient in comparison and I actually love it. I really want to try Win10 though, performance is supposed to be better than Win8 so I'm excited. I just got an SSD and I've heard SSD performance is better on 10 than 8 even.

Check out the privacy settings. I am really annoyed about the standard W10 privacy settings. Fuck Microsoft, I have to go open source...

Check out the privacy settings. I am really annoyed about the standard W10 privacy settings. Fuck Microsoft, I have to go open source...

Running a free software OS will solve this problem, just so long as you never use a smartphone, don't join a social network, don't regularly associate with others who use social networks, you run (competently) your own mail server, your web browser is not identifiable (for terrifying illustration of the problems see http://panopticlick.eff.org/) etc. etc. etc.

It will just be you and RMS and you won't be able to speak to each other.

For the most part the extent of data mining in Windows has not changed, it's just that it has overtly extended its reach from apps to apps+OS.  And who runs a barebones desktop Windows OS anyway?  In a business environment with sane administration there will essentially be no change, and for most (uninterested and unskilled) home users there is in effect no substantive change.

In terms of loss of privacy I don't think Windows 10 makes anything absolutely worse for many people, it only introduces a new conduit to the data harvesters and adds one to their number (MS), or at least makes their already existing activity explicit.

I run Debian and Windows.  My Windows system is for the odd thing that absolutely requires Windows (some games and apps that don't work well in WINE and some stuff specific to my Samsung Android devices) while Debian is for the other 99% of stuff on home desktop and 100% of stuff on laptop and server.  Debian divulges exactly 0% personal info.  It has no license to inspect my data.  Connections to servers/mirrors to check for updates are initiated by me only (whether automated/scheduled or manual) and I don't have to identify myself to them, they have to identify themselves to me (public keys and signed packages and so on).

But I probably undo all of that because I use a smartphone and use gmail as my primary email address.  I can most definitely be associated with specific accounts and identities across multiple regular locations and devices.

I find it hard to believe that Windows 10's privacy intrusions are anything new to anyone who uses a desktop Windows or Mac or a smartphone of any description.  They may be *news* but they aren't new.

Uninstall the KB3035583 in windows update. It should stop bothering you.

It only kinda worked. Next reboot it started downloading automatically again. I went through windows update and unchecked it even though it was an "optional" updates, but that still didn't do it. I have now hidden it from the optional updates... not sure if it'll hold this time.

My mother's PC got notification today. She's not a power user so it's perfect to see how her rig responds to the upgrade.



Went ahead and performed the install for her which was trouble free and took about an hour from start to end. Actually picked up an extra 7-8GB of free space on her boot drive after it was over. Definitely much snappier and smoother than Win7 which was welcome considering she's on an old Core2Duo with only 3GB of RAM and one of the first 30GB Corsair SSDs (ahhh...TRIM!). Only thing I had reinstall was JRiver. Drivers were good to go. The only thing that seems not to have picked up any speed was Chrome which makes sense. Hopefully Google will optimize it better in future. Right now it feels a little like a fish out of water on Win10.