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To the shock of no one, Windows 10 users who upgrade to the Anniversary Update (scheduled for release next week), will not be able to disable Cortana using the settings.
If you compare the start menu settings of Cortana of the current version of Windows (version 1511) with those of the Anniversary Update (version 1607) you will notice that Cortana's off switch is no longer available (thanks Ian Paul @PC World for spotting that)
Cortana, the digital assistant that Microsoft touts as one of the major features of Windows 10 supports interaction via touch, typing, ink and voice.
Microsoft integrated Cortana deeply with the native search functionality of Windows 10. While linked to search, Windows 10 users may turn off Cortana currently to use search without it. While you might have to turn off web searches on Windows 10 as well, doing so ensured that you got search functionality that matched those of previous versions of Windows.
Windows users who turned off Cortana had two main reasons for it: either they did not need Cortana functionality, or they did not want it because of privacy implications.
[...] It is still possible to turn off Cortana, but not by using the preferences. The policy to disable Cortana is still available and you may use it to turn off Cortana on the device.
Please note that the Group Policy Editor is only available in professional versions of Windows 10. Most notably, it is not available in Windows 10 Home.
The linked article goes into detail on how to disable Cortana using the Registry in Windows 10 Home, and Group Policy Editor in Windows 10 Pro. However, Microsoft no longer makes disabling Cortana anywhere near as easy as it was.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday July 27 2016, @07:11PM
Mint 17.x is when I convinced the family that switching was mostly seamless.
Win 8/8.1/10 "features" helped a lot to make the case.
Only got one machine left with a Win sub-boot, for bad website cases (like checking in on a BA flight).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday July 27 2016, @08:40PM
Sure that works great....if all you do is surf the web and consume media, but if that is the case why have a PC at all, why not just use a tablet?
this is what Linux advocates just can't seem to grasp even though its sooo obvious, nobody buys a PC for the OS but because they have applications they want to run on it and all those billions of dollars worth of applications? Yeah they don't run on Linux. From Quickbooks to Photoshop, Acid Pro to the software that came with grandma's camera none of it runs on Linux and if the PC they bought to run these applications won't run the applications? You might as well be offering to trade their PC for a goat for all the good its gonna do them. Actually the goat would probably give them more value than Linux as at least they can milk the goat.
This is why MSFT can do pretty much anything it wants and will still get more adopters in a week than Linux has in its 20+ year history, its called the network effect [wikipedia.org] and its not going anywhere. Hell look up the latest OS adoption numbers, MSFT has put out no less than THREE, count 'em, three stinkers in a row....see Linux adoption shooting up? Nope because as long as Linux won't run the majority of Windows software its not going anywhere.
Those that care about privacy will stick with 7/8.1 until they are EOLed, by then either hackers will have come out with a "STFU Win 10" that disables the spying (it'll probably be in the pirate version, for the last 4 OS releases from MSFT frankly the pirate version has been better) and they will switch then while everyone else happily goes to Win 10 spying or not. this is why I wish the Linux community would have gotten behind ReactOS, if you had a version of Linux that could run Windows programs as easily as Windows AND didn't have any of the MSFT bullshit? You'd have the biggest hit since windows 95, hell I wouldn't have been surprised to see some of the OEMs jump on board as even they are getting tired of MSFT's shit, but as long as you have to toss all your programs when you switch? For 99% of the public Linux is a non starter.
Oh and before anybody chimes in with the "Its only cuz the OEMs install it" myth sorry to burst your bubble but there WAS a time when Linux came pre-installed by the OEMs and you couldn't even buy Windows on those models....remember netbooks? Yeah what the OEMs found was a 400% higher return rate [laptopmag.com] for units that had Linux. I can tell ya why too, as its the same reason why I won't carry Linux units at the shop and will strip good running PCs for parts rather than sell them with Linux because the outcome is ALWAYS the same...1.- Customer buys Linux unit because its cheaper and looks nice, 2.- Goes home and tries to install their Windows only software and peripherals on it and finds it doesn't work, 3.- Customer returns unit. Hell until Win 7 came along MSFT slaughtered the netbook market using creaky old XP while Linux was rocking the latest and greatest, why? Its the software, nobody cares what OS they have, only that the software runs and all that software is made for Windows.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Wednesday July 27 2016, @10:10PM
You are not completely wrong, but still quite a bit:
- Tablet? my smallest screen is 23 inches, but i spend most of my time on the 40-inchers (note the s)
- Tablet? We type stuff, and I game with a keyboard and mouse (got a console controller for some games).
- Most people DO NOT buy PCs based on which software they want to run. They buy a PC and get windows, and just keep using whichever software they are familiar with. Sure, alternates are often less refined, but the gap is ever shrinking, and the price/inconvenience of the windows version's licensing is making many reconsider the alternatives when they change their machine.
- Most people do not know how to save money by buying a PC without Windows. If you ain't saving money, why bother?
- Until Mint 17, I had never personally seen a seamless works-out-of-the-box install on so many different machines. It might have existed, but I wasn't lucky. And the Linux distros were mostly not beginner-friendly, so good for me but not for the family. Mint 17+ (and equivalents) is like XP.
- Machines sold with linux as recently as 4 years ago didn't really stand a chance, because it took the Cloud craziness to make your main point invalid for most people: abstract as much as possible in the browser, and people suddenly get cross-platform apps, weakening the MS advantage.
- People with constraints (MS office being the most common) just get their win box. Fine, I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about convincing my family that they didn't have said constraints.
- Most people in my office are now running Mint. It turns out that our Xilinx FPGA design tools run faster on Linux than on Windows. We are still waiting for a good port of our PCB tools, so not everyone can switch.
- Ever heard of WINE ? It got a lot better recently.
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Thursday July 28 2016, @08:05AM
Sorry but all you provided is bullshit and anecdotes, I provided citations. You avoided it so I will highlight it for you why did ONLY Linux netbooks see a 400% higher return rate even though they were competing with an OS that was 1.-2 versions behind, 2.- Was slower on the same hardware, 3.- used more of the limited resources.
You can make logic hoops to jump but I've seen it with my own eyes, if the software won't run Linux is done which is why I'm currently stripping a couple of C2Ds that would run Linux great, its not worth dealing with because it WILL get returned. How many Linux units have YOU sold? I sold over 50 and ended up more than 40 returned, always for the same thing..."I can't get it to run" (insert Windows only software or hardware). The handful that kept them? Were charities that got them REAL cheap and only wanted them for basic bookkeeping which frankly any OS that can add and subtract can handle.
So you can stick with your chromebook or whatever Linux unit you are using, which just FYI I bet you only consume media on, surf the web, the exact same shit you can do on a tablet, yes? Unless of course you are a programmer, but since programmers are 0.02% of the world population saying Linux is great for programmers is like saying its an OS designed for blind albinos, the numbers are so low as to not matter.
BTW your "save money" argument is BULLSHIT, because there is no "Windows Tax" there is a "Windows Tax BREAK" because the trialware generates more income to the OEMs than Windows. We know this as Sony offered to remove all trialware if the user paid the difference which was $75 so any Linux unit, unless they skimp on hardware, will be $75 MORE than Windows because nobody is paying to put trialware on them. Oh and every.single.unit. I sold had the Linux units at least $60 cheaper....didn't keep people choosing to pay the difference to bring 'em back for a Windows version where their software would run.
But your entire argument makes no damned sense, I mean think about it for a minute...if you are not buying a PC to run programs then WTF are you buying a PC for? The net? Like I said a tablet does that just as well for most folks. To look at a desktop wallpaper? Folks buy PCs because they have programs they want to run and whether you like it or not those programs? Run on windows, hell even the FOSS software that Linux advocates try to use as a selling point? They run on windows too, so you can stay with windows and have ALL the software or go Linux and throw all your software out and start over....no sale.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday July 28 2016, @04:12PM
You really need to learn to read.
Mint is good enough for what my family does.
Mint is good enough for most of the engineers at my high-tech job.
Xilinx (a three-billion dollar company) says that their high-end FPGA design tools run better on linux. Their competitor (just bought by Intel for only $16B) also agrees.
WINE provides the ability to run Win programs on Linux. Steam has addressed the gaming problem.
So you can tell me about people returning their linux machines, and I agreed that many people do have tools that they want or need which they can't run on Linux.
But my original contribution was that my family has been on Mint since last year, and that has not caused extra tech support calls.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @07:52AM
The Linux developers wouldn't be interested in ReactOS. The ones who should be interested should be the large corporations with stuff that still only works on Windows. They need to protect their investment. As such sponsoring ReactOS would help make Microsoft less likely to try an Itanium on them. At one point of time Intel was actually saying the future was Itanium (and charged early adopters a premium for it). However AMD came up with an x86 CPU that was 64 bit and so Intel couldn't pull that off. Seriously, the Itanium was actually to be the upgrade path: http://www.osnews.com/story/636/A_Titanic_Story_-_The_History_of_the_Itanium [osnews.com]
In my opinion the real reasons why Desktop Linux hasn't succeeded are: 1) marketing & polish, and 2) because their own developers keep sabotaging it whether knowingly or not.
1) Marketing, positioning and polish works. OS X gained far more share in a shorter space of time. Everyone knew that if they bought a Mac it was different (and thus Windows-only printers wouldn't work with them). AND it was good enough for most buyers to overlook the disadvantages and issues.
2) My proof of the "sabotage" is the major forks. If stuff was going so well there wouldn't have been those major forks. It's probably my imagination but every time Microsoft made a major misstep (Vista, Metro) it seemed like the Desktop Linux bunch would conveniently (for Microsoft) make their stuff even worse.
The idiots who say forking is good and creates choice are part of the problem. Having more crappy choices makes things worse, because it makes it harder to make the right choice. Apple made it easy to make the "right choice" for their market and they were rewarded for it. Even too many good options can be bad for a corporate environment - they just one good enough option. That way their helpdesk and support can go through a much simpler path to fix stuff.
The Linux idiots even consider breaking backward compatibility with hardware drivers a strength. How many hardware vendors are going to open source their drivers? It's not so simple since many of them don't own (or even understand ;) ) the entire thing. If they write it once for windows xp and it works 99.99% of the time, for the next 10+ years it works 99.99% of the time. They write it for Linux and every year or so a kernel update could break it.