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Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Edition Will Have Some Group Policy Settings Removed
For their forthcoming Anniversary update, Microsoft have decided to remove some Group Policy settings from all editions of the operating system except for Windows 10 Enterprise. These Policies affect your ability to control "Cloud Content", "Personalization", and "Windows Store".
The corresponding Registry keys for these policies will also be removed. Manually adding those keys back into non-Enterprise editions of Win10 will have no effect.
Looking at the list of Policies to be removed, many home/power users of this operating system will almost certainly be up in arms and annoyed at this move, but it seems they are just innocent bystanders in a bigger game/pressure-tactic Microsoft is playing out with the corporate and business world.
Unfortunately for home/power users, purchasing a license to use the Windows 10 Enterprise edition is all but impossible. Divorcing from the MS Windows ecosystem may end up being the only palatable option for many such users.
Here is the list of Policies to be removed:
- Cloud Content > "Turn off Microsoft consumer experiences" -- personalized recommendations from Microsoft ...notifications about your Microsoft account.
- Cloud Content > "Do not show Windows tips" -- may see contextual popups ...Microsoft uses diagnostic, telemetry and usage data to determine which tips to show.
- Personalization > "Force a specific default lock screen and logon image"
- Personalization > "Prevent changing lock screen and logon image"
- Personalization > "Do not display the lock screen" -- before signing in, users will see their selected tile and must dismiss the lock screen using touch, keyboard or mouse drag.
- Store > "Disable all apps from Windows Store" -- turns off launch of all apps from Windows Store that came pre-installed or were downloaded; also will turn off Windows Store.
[Continues...]
Microsoft faces two new lawsuits over aggressive Windows 10 upgrade tactics
Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Microsoft is facing two more lawsuits over the company's questionable Windows 10 upgrade tactics. Both suits are seeking class-action status.
The first suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Florida. It alleges that Microsoft's Windows 10 upgrade prompts "violated laws governing unsolicited electronic advertisements," as reported by The Seattle Times . The suit also says Microsoft's tactics are against the Federal Trade Commission's rules on deceptive and unfair practices. The second suit was filed in June in Haifa, Israel alleging that Microsoft installed Windows 10 on users' computers without consent. Microsoft already paid out a $10,000 award in a previous U.S. suit over similar circumstances.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Celestial on Sunday July 31 2016, @10:52PM
I've stuck with Microsoft Windows all these years simply because of video gaming. Gaming on Linux is a non-starter. It's gotten better, but the available selection of games on Linux is still only a minuscule fraction compared to the amount available on Microsoft Windows, and shows no sign of improving. However, with Windows 10... I think it may be time to unfortunately make the switch to consoles for video gaming, and dump Windows on the computer for Linux or BSD. Pity. I much prefer the keyboard and mouse to a controller, but Microsoft isn't leaving much choice.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:11PM
Nevermind principles, you have to get your drug fix.
(Score: 4, Informative) by NCommander on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:32PM
I did this for a number of years, but returned to the PC simply because I got sick with the way consoles work nowadays. As for gaming on Linux, honestly, I'd be hard pressed to name a game I couldn't get running under WINE from my Steam library at this point. Many Steam releases are triple platformed now, and those that aren't I've managed to get working in WINE.
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by deimios on Monday August 01 2016, @04:27AM
Anything with D3D11 will not work on wine (for now). The most prominent exmple: Blizzard's Overwatch. The adoption of the Vulkan API however will benefit Linux gaming greatly.
I'm not a fan of GabeN or Steam but he saw it coming and that's why we have SteamOS and an ever growing library of native linux games. My library stands at 186 out of 571 games having a linux version. Now if we could just keep Linux sane and Unix compatible and from slipping into SystemDOS...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @05:00AM
but returned to the PC simply because I got sick with the way consoles work nowadays
I use all 3 platforms (console, windows, linux). All have their strengths.
For server work, hands down linux. It is 'functional' as a desktop (if you want a decent unix computer with a decent GUI... get a mac). But kinda quirky in a 'spend 3 hours on google to find whatever issue it is this time' sort of way (hope whatever fix you find is for the same flavor of linux you are using). Once up and running it is rock solid. But updates to newer versions of stuff are frequent enough to be kind of a pain. For example I use squid in my home. On the point releases no biggie just upgrade. But on a major point release I have to review no less than 500 options. To see if they are relevant or they have changed one of the ones I use in some subtle way. That is just one package. Upgrading a linux box is 'interesting' for me. The programmer IDEs are either very basic or odd to use in some basic ways. They are getting better all the time but to me seem overly cumbersome. Which is just an opinion dont take it personal.
For windows it is fairly solid as a desktop. You can run it as a server but that is not really its strength. CLI is unfortunately basically stuck in some weird limbo between REXX and DOS in 1995. Powershell is somewhat better but *very* cryptic (at least to me coming from a csh/bash shell realm). I can also pound out crazy good CMD/DOS shell scripts. They have finally sorta fixed most of the non-scriptable GUI bits from within the core shell. But you will need win8.1/10 to do that. It also has that 'google it' problem. But so many more people use it you can usually find what is wrong fairly quickly. It has what I consider hands down one of the best dev environments, visual studio (which has its own wall of learning if you have not used it before). If that was on linux I would be there in a heart beat. They are 'kinda' porting/creating one but its not there yet. For games it pretty much works with anything made after 1993 if you use 32 bit, 1999 if you use 64 bit. That is an amazing library to chose from. My wife has well over 700+ games. She would be a bit upset to lose those. Wine is getting there but flakes out in odd ways. They ported the elf format to run in win10. So that might be interesting. I will give it a try but do not hold out much hope as apparently it is limited in what it can reach to the frame buffer.
Both platforms suffer immensely from what I call the 'abandoned' problem. Both are exceedingly easy to create software for, so people have. You have thousands of programs to chose from on both. But there is also an amazing amount of crap on both platforms. You can find world class well designed software on both systems. For free and splashing out big bucks. There just is such a mountain of software out there that gets no updates. Ever. Something like the libressl thing should not have even had to happen. Yet it did and it is unfortunately not alone. Both windows and linux suffer heavily for it. As I pointed out my wife has a large library of software. She has paid a fairly large sum of cash for them. Yet she has games that just flake out or just work like crap. They will never revive another update ever, because the company that made the game folded 10 years ago. Open source might fix that issue. However, looking at stats on most games from steam there are maybe 2-3 people playing some of the games she plays at any time. So *maybe* someone would fix it. Hell, I probably could. But that means taking time away from my other projects.
For consoles. Lets just say they piss me the hell off these days. I have owned pretty much all of them at this point. I skipped the last Nintendo one so I can not speak to it. But holy fuck is it a patch fest out there. I play one of my consoles about 1-2 times a month at this point. But it feels like every time I fire one up there is a series of steps to be taken. Step one your firmware is out of date. So you spend 1-2 hours downloading/installing an update. Then you have not touched a game in a few months? Oh that will be yet another update. So many times what used to be pop a cart in and you are playing, is now a 1-3 hour patch fest before you can even start the game you wanted to play with when you turned it on. "oh just leave them on they will patch themselves". Yeah tried that, didnt work. So no reason to waste the power for that. Maybe it will work someday. Might try it again. Honestly I am not sure I care anymore.
For a game platform steam and gog is about as close as you get to 'just works' these days. Also the 'fan boys' for all 3 of these platforms are a tad annoying. You mention one little thing wrong and suddenly it is a blame storm of why you are the stupidest person on the planet for having a negative opinion on what they like.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:33PM
Linux has sauerbraten *cough* and MAME *cough*.
If you need more, you are not hardcore enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @12:13AM
sourceforge.net/projects/sauerbraten/?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:38PM
Gaming on Linux has gotten way better, what are you smoking? "It's an older opinion but it checks out. I was about to let it through..."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @01:22AM
You know, I think I'm getting sick and tired of people using "Oh I've only stuck with Windows for the gaming" excuse. Here's a tip, if everyone that used that excuse would just say "fuck it, I'm switching to liinux", they'd miss what? Maybe a couple of blockbuster hits and potentially a 1000 stinkers, then the devs would port all of that + their new games to Linux since that's where the money will be.
Hell, all the stuff currently out that's extra popular would also find it's way transferred over to Linux eventually since it'd be an easy way to resell things already sold once on Windows.
But so long as the windows gamers continue to complain but continue to use windows, they're all fucked.
(Score: 3, Informative) by julian on Monday August 01 2016, @04:23AM
I'm finally going to give up my last Windows PC because of this. There are enough games on Linux now to suffice and if something isn't available I'll just go without. I'm at the point now where MS's bullshit has exceeded my ability to put up with for the benefits I received.
Also Linux as an OS has gotten a lot better. I installed Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 LTS and for the first time ever I've not had a single problem. Nothing is broken, incomplete, mismatched, or kludgy. Everything works, automatically. It's astounding. There is still systemd, but my objections to that have always been theoretical/philosophical. I haven't encountered any problems with it in use.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday August 01 2016, @05:24PM
Yeah, "It runs the software I want to use" is such a terrible criteria for OS selection!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @09:27PM
It is. Your first priority should be picking an OS that respects your freedoms and doesn't actively abuse you.
(Score: 2) by Jesus_666 on Monday August 01 2016, @05:38PM
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday August 01 2016, @01:42AM
I stick with Windows because there is no professional grade (at any price) Linux software for programming five axis CNC milling machines. Anyone got a few million dollars to put into development?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Interesting) by butthurt on Monday August 01 2016, @02:27AM
Forgive me for commenting on a topic I'm ignorant of, but there's software called LinuxCNC (formerly EMC2) that is said to work with a Servo To Go 8-axis I/O card, with a "6-axis hexapod (Stewart platform) mill prototype" and with the "Index GS30 5-Axis Lathe"—I take it that that software is not "professional grade"?
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?LinuxCNC_Supported_Hardware [linuxcnc.org]
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Case_Studies [linuxcnc.org]
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday August 01 2016, @05:01AM
I'm not talking about servo control software, I'm talking about CAM software, which is used to write the toolpaths.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Monday August 01 2016, @06:07AM
Thanks for explaining. I looked at a list of G-code generators and there was no mention of 5-axis capability, just as you said.
http://replicat.org/generators [replicat.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @02:36AM
Which version(s) of Windows do you use to run CNC software, and how well does it work? There is (I believe) GibbsCAM that runs on Macs...
Hopefully the actual CNC machine controller is a separate processor running some realtime OS (not Windows)??
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday August 01 2016, @05:06AM
I run Mastercam on Win 7 Pro. The machine has it's own dedicated and isolated control; I only send it the ASCII files with the gcode programs. Gibbs does not support Mac, according to their website: http://www.westcam.co/support/systemrequirements.php [westcam.co]
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday August 01 2016, @03:30AM
Maybe not in your niche, but Debian has had full MRI support [debian.org] for years. I just can't afford the $2million machine to play on.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Hairyfeet on Monday August 01 2016, @05:30AM
Pssst....Look up "Windows 7 Tiny" or "Windows 8 Gaming Edition" but you didn't hear it from me,mmmkay?
Both are great for gaming, low resource, and bypass all the MSFT bullshit and since MSFT has refused to backport Win 12 all games will end up staying with Win 11 because there is too many on previous versions for devs to ignore. By the time 8.1 is EOL (Hell I'll be amazed if he makes it to Win 7 EOL) old Nutella will be given his walking paper and hopefully third time will be the charm, that or the gaming devs will just go to Steam OS. Either way fuck MSFT we can still game without their spyware shit.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @06:40AM
I think it may be time to unfortunately make the switch to consoles for video gaming
Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute.
Telemetry and ads are your reason for switching to consoles? Bwahahaha xD
You might want to recheck the developments in the console world over the last 10 years or so :)
Jeeze, talk about "out of the frying pan and into the fire"...
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday August 01 2016, @07:10AM
It may be forced updates the OP objects to.. oh wait, consoles have that too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @09:42AM
Current generation consoles don't live up to what a console is supposed to be anyway. They are basically a PC in a shiny box, with all that brings - updates, needing to install games, games requiring an internet connection, etc.
If you want the advantages of a console, get a Playstation 2 or a Wii.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @07:19AM
Console gaming – too pricy, too controlling, too unpredictable.
Do you want large HDD? That’d be a premium, sir.
Want screenshots? Say “please,” sir.
Online multiplayer? We’ll be having your credits, sir.
Console upgrade time? Fuck you, sir.
Upgrade in the middle of a generation? Sucks to be you, kiddo.
Mods? You don’t need them, sir.
Oh, and we’ll have a new way to totally fuck our controllers each generation. Have fun.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @09:10AM
Console gaming has been dead since 1997, PC gaming since 2001, arcades (in Japan) since around 2010. Really the entire industry is just an animated corpse.