Then you certainly don’t have to make use of it. I’m pretty sure MS could maybe find a way to add some level of validation or restrictions if they felt that it could be abused. Or remove the offer completely - does Win7/8 have no assistive tech?
Fact is, they want you on Win10. Imagine how many will install it after the deadline using that “backdoor” because they think they are getting away with something. MS is not losing in this gambit.
Honestly, I don’t think the backdoor will be enough. They’ll open upgrades back up for everybody without promising, hand over heart, that they used assistive tech.
I have my doubts.
My SteelSeries Sensei Raw started experiencing major mousewheel skipping literally just as my Win10 install on my old 7 PC finished. Turns out it was a genuine hardware issue (that my warranty-replacement mouse fixed in a jiffy), but the timing was. . . exceedingly suspicious.
Here is my peeve about Windows 10. What’s up with the news app and notifications. It’s almost always bad news. I went into my options and filtered out “crime” and maybe some other topics, but I still seem to get nothing but notifications about mass murder or multiple deaths in some bizarre fashion. Today it was a hot air balloon crash that killed 16 in Texas.
Also, Cortana notifications from News and Mail apps always come twice. I have no idea why. They both come at the same time, stacking up in the notification pane. Does this happen to anyone else?
I think the news notifications are just universal for specific (and usually pretty rare) stories, so the filters won’t work. You’d just have to turn off notifications from News entirely if you don’t want them.
As for Cortana notifications, I’m not sure - I don’t get notifications directly from Cortana. The notifications straight from the Mail app only come once for me. Is there something else you’re seeing too?
I’m not sure what to call them, so maybe Cortana notifications is wrong. It’s just the notifications that come in the little slide out panel on the right. I get them about the Mariners, news stories from News, and email. Maybe other things, too, but those are the ones that come to mind.
But, here’s the thing, they come two at a time for some reason!
If I get a notification that the Mariners won, I get it twice. If I get an email, I get two notifications about the same email. If I get two emails, I get four notifications.
It’s so kooky.
I have looked all over for a Windows setting or something that seems awry, but I can find nothing. Occasionally I get a single notification without duplication, but I can detect no rhyme or reason.
Cortana can’t be disabled in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update
If this turns out as bad as it sounds, and Microsoft forces all local system searches through their proprietary web search engine with the only off switch hidden in some obscure group policy setting, I hope they will be facing antitrust fines higher than last time.
EDIT: And promptly, Microsoft removes policies from Windows 10 Pro.
“This deal’s getting worse all the time!”
What. The. Fuck.
Policies don’t seem to be wholesale removed, but a number are now suspiciously disabled in Pro as of this update. A few highlighted ones from the linked articles:
Windows Tips and Tricks
Windows Store (Start Menu) Suggestions
Turn off Microsoft Consumer Experience
Do Not Display the Lock Screen
There’s going to be a lot of backlash here. I don’t see how MS can legitimately remove functionality in what’s essentially a service pack to an existing release that people have already paid money for.
If Windows were permanently free then you could perhaps argue for these monetization attempts. As it is, it seems like an egregious abuse of power.
Diego
I noticed that Windows 10 disabled MSE when I upgraded from Windows 7 and instead uses Windows Defender.
Previously I used a combination of MSE and the paid Malwarebytes (plus malwarebytes anti-exploit.) From what I’ve read, Windows Defender is pretty “eh” in terms of protection.
So - what are the recommendations on here for antivirus in Windows 10?
In Win10, Defender = MSE.
So expect out of Defender exactly what you have had out of MSE under previous Windows iterations.
The $10 I paid my job for the Education Edition of Win10 (AKA, the “real” Win10, now that Pro is getting crippled) is feeling like a better and better investment everyday. . .
Ah, OK. I’ll stop creating new reasons to worry. ;) Thanks.
So does the 7/29 expiration mean no more accidental upgrades to Win10 via Windows Update? Can Win7 legacy users drop their guard now?
It does.
So this is a pretty severely misunderstood change in the anniversary update.
The biggest difference here is that “Search without enabling Cortana has been renamed to Cortana”. Basically, you can log out of Cortana just as always (or never log-in in the first place), and it’ll work with generic search without knowing any of your personal information. Cortana has just been improved to do more things without requiring a log-in. You can still entirely hide it from the taskbar as always.
This is also an incredibly dumb misunderstanding. All of those options are still freely configurable in settings. I’m on Windows 10 Pro with the final version of the anniversary update and in seconds could either navigate or search for all of those settings:
Millions of people have been using preview builds of the anniversary update and any of them can confirm as much. I know that Microsoft has to improve their messaging in many ways, but this is not one of them. This is literally something that anyone can validate in 5 seconds flat if they just took the time to check for themselves.
Interesting and thanks for clearing that up! I assumed that the publications would have verified the changes before posting the articles.
Will see what happens in my update on Tuesday since I have those policies disabled in my install today.
Diego
I don’t know, it’s just a factor of nuance getting lost. I don’t work on this stuff, but if I could guess, here’s what actually changed:
Some group policies for personalization settings can no longer be configured by system administrators for a large set of machines, because Pro is and always has been primarily a consumer SKU for personally-owned devices. While sys admins can still control how devices get updated, or how they behave on the network which could affect other devices, sys admins should be deploying Enterprise or Education if they want to configure personal/consumer-style settings.
And then the press confuses group policies with individual device personalization settings.