Random Windows 10 thoughts
Orderly Deployment of Windows 10
As much as I would prefer an orderly deployment of Windows10 I am coming across clients more frequently that got updated and didn’t even know it. It usually goes like this, I get a call that some feature program or piece of hardware isn’t working correctly. When I get there, I find out Windows10 is now on the system and the utilities they were using were removed in the processes of the upgrade(Start8, Classic shell), the program defaults are changed (adobe, browser), or printers and other drivers were flushed from the system and need to be reloaded from the manufacturer. The most frequent frustrations are changing the default PDF viewer to the systems viewer and the default browser getting set to edge. The other big nightmare is profiles that get set to a MS Account instead of inheriting the existing local account.
Favorite Windows Utilities
One of my favorite utilities, CCleaner was updated by Piriform to recognize Edge and flush its cache. A client that was using Edge for their browser and didn’t know it for the last few months had collected almost 30GB (600,000 files) in the Edge cache.
Also here’s a good article on the Windows10 privacy snooping.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/worried-that-windows-10-is-spying-on-you-here-how-to-take-back-control/
I like his conclusion, Its probably innocuous but the fact that MS won’t be upfront about the data its collecting is driving the conspiracy theorists into fits. So prudence dictates that one be given some tools so the end user has some control. The two he lists are also on my list of preferred tools:
https://www.safer-networking.org/spybot-anti-beacon/
https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
I like the one from Safer Networking for most clients as its just one button to push for them to manage it and they probably are aware of the Spybot utility as well. the Shutup10 app I run from a thumbdrive.
I have not figured out why Windows10 causes the hard drive to thrash so much. Some of my clients have issues with system performance as a result. At times its as bad as Vista. If you find a solution shoot me a fix.
share and enjoy
Mark