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posted by martyb on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:10AM   Printer-friendly
from the PSA dept.

If you're using a PC running Windows 7 or 8, you may be getting a little sick of endless popup screens telling you to upgrade to version 10. And you may be worried about inadvertently installing the upgrade as part of a security update.

Microsoft will start pushing out a Windows 10 upgrade as a recommended, virtually mandatory, update very soon (it's right now only an optional download). Some people are tempted to turn off Windows Update completely to avoid getting the new operating system – don't. It'll leave your computer vulnerable to attack as you'll no longer get security patches.

It's actually rather easy to turn off the Windows 10 upgrade function without losing vital regular software updates. Microsoft even has an official document [*] explaining how to do it.

[...] Make sure you follow all the steps, but essentially you have to:

        1. Open the Registry Editor (search for regedit in the Start Menu and run it).
        2. Set [DWORD value] DisableOSUpgrade to 1 in HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
        3. Set [DWORD value] ReservationsAllowed to 0 in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade

Or, the obligatory recommendation to run FOSS instead.

[*] Javascript required.


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  • (Score: 5, Touché) by mth on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:26AM

    by mth (2848) on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:26AM (#287456) Homepage

    It's actually rather easy to turn off the Windows 10 upgrade function without losing vital regular software updates.

    (snip)

    1. Open the Registry Editor (search for regedit in the Start Menu and run it).

    And people complain that Linux is too hard for average users... ;)

    Starting Score:    1  point
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    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:44AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:44AM (#287462)

    Keep in mind this option was meant for corporate systems administrators, not average Joes.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @09:25AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @09:25AM (#287546)

      Keep in mind this option was meant for corporate systems administrators, not average Joes.

      So, you're saying, it's kinda dumbed-down? Okey-dokey!

  • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Sunday January 10 2016, @06:19AM

    by Pino P (4721) on Sunday January 10 2016, @06:19AM (#287520) Journal

    You're right that gksudo mousepad vs. regedit is often a wash.

    The real difference with respect to ease of use is that a Windows PC ships with drivers needed to use all components included with a PC. It'd be different if PCs with preinstalled GNU/Linux were more widespread (that is, not just System76 and a couple other tiny mail order shops). This means we end up comparing preinstalled Windows to GNU/Linux installed from a downloaded disk image, and that often doesn't autodetect all hardware.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:26AM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:26AM (#287558) Journal

      su
      nano $document

      vi users save two more letters

      --
      “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by stormreaver on Sunday January 10 2016, @02:37PM

      by stormreaver (5101) on Sunday January 10 2016, @02:37PM (#287615)

      Even since Broadcom opened up their drivers, I have not installed a version of Kubuntu that did not autoinstall all necessary drivers (Broadcom makes many, if not most, of the wireless chipsets used in PC's, with Intel also very common). Contrary to what you said, it's the Windows installs that require me to hunt down and install almost all necessary drivers: motherboard drivers, wireless drivers, network drivers, video drivers, etc.

      This is even the case for preinstalled Windows, as any minor change in hardware usually requires that the driver be installed from disk.

      Sorry, but Linux outclasses Windows on driver preinstalls by a huge margin. Just for one small example: Linux understands that various devices use the same underlying chipset, so one driver will support all those devices. Windows requires a separate driver for each device, even if the underlying code for all those devices is identical.

      • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:14PM

        by Pino P (4721) on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:14PM (#287833) Journal

        Even since Broadcom opened up their drivers, I have not installed a version of Kubuntu that did not autoinstall all necessary drivers

        "Opened up" to what extent? I installed Debian on a ThinkPad within the past couple months, and I remember having to download the binary firmware separately from a third-party site after having finished the net install over Ethernet.

        • (Score: 2) by stormreaver on Monday January 11 2016, @04:39AM

          by stormreaver (5101) on Monday January 11 2016, @04:39AM (#287975)

          Broadcom released a fully Open Source driver in 2010.

          • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday January 11 2016, @03:37PM

            by Pino P (4721) on Monday January 11 2016, @03:37PM (#288167) Journal

            Even if the PC-side part of the driver is free software, a complete driver still often includes a binary-only firmware that runs on a separate processor in the radio chipset. To reduce the bill of materials, radio chipset manufacturers often leave out a flash to hold this firmware, meaning it has to be copied to the card every time the system boots. Does the part of the driver released as free software in 2010 include the radio chipset's firmware? It appears not, as the instructions to get this free driver working [debian.org] require the installation of the non-free package firmware-brcm80211 [debian.org].

            I have now realized that my previous comment contains an error. I just checked again, and the one I installed within the past couple months was Intel (iwlwifi), not Broadcom. It too requires a non-free firmware [debian.org]. I probably misremembered because the other laptop was Broadcom.

            • (Score: 2) by stormreaver on Wednesday January 13 2016, @05:44PM

              by stormreaver (5101) on Wednesday January 13 2016, @05:44PM (#289149)

              It appears not, as the instructions to get this free driver working require the installation of the non-free package firmware-brcm80211 .

              I can't speak to Debian-proper, as I haven't installed it on a laptop. I can speak to Kubuntu, though, as I have installed it on my two laptops and my nearly 70 year old mother's laptop. I'm not sure if the laptops use Broadcom or Intel, but it only matters to a certain extent.

              On both my laptop installs, I did not have to do anything special to get the wireless working. I installed on two laptops without a network cable, and the Kubuntu installer asked me if I wanted to enable wireless. I just reponded, "yes," and the process continued automatically. After installing, the wireless "just worked."

              I installed Kubuntu on the other laptop with the cable plugged in, and was not asked if I wanted to activate the wireless card during the install (if I remember correctly). But again, the wireless worked automatically after the installation without me having to do anything.

              And drivers aside, most of my productivity software was automatically installed by Kubuntu; so it was almost completely install-and-go. The remainder was a few apt-get commands. With Windows, the operating system installation is just the first step of a very long, gruelling process to become productive.

              Linux installs beat Windows installs by a very large margin.

              • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday January 13 2016, @07:00PM

                by Pino P (4721) on Wednesday January 13 2016, @07:00PM (#289203) Journal

                One difference between the distributions is that install media for desktop versions of Ubuntu includes some non-free binary firmware from the restricted section of the repository, while Debian doesn't include anything from non-free in its install media.

                • (Score: 2) by stormreaver on Thursday January 14 2016, @06:46PM

                  by stormreaver (5101) on Thursday January 14 2016, @06:46PM (#289605)

                  One difference between the distributions....

                  When Kubuntu finishes installing, and after the first reboot, there is usually a notification that pops up saying proprietary drivers may be needed for some devices. It's been a while since I've paid attention to the message, but I think it says proprietary video and wireless drivers can be optionally installed. Since I've switched over to using the Free AMD video driver, and since wireless is already working, I don't install the proprietary stuff from there. I don't know if the proprietary wireless driver was installed automatically or not, though. I am assuming not, or the message wouldn't be there.

    • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Sunday January 10 2016, @11:20PM

      by darkfeline (1030) on Sunday January 10 2016, @11:20PM (#287859) Homepage

      I've had universally better experience with Linux drivers than Windows drivers. The last time I reinstalled Windows (a year ago), I had to manually look up eight drivers, by product ID, move then via USB, and then install them, of course, restarting after each one. The last time I installed Linux (six years ago), everything "just werked". Oh wait, for the sake of honest disclosure, I had to run package manager install "nvidia" and some wifi driver (the liveboot itself had full wifi support, so it wasn't a big problem).

      Oh yeah, ease of use with regard to drivers, real solid argument there.

      --
      Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
      • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday January 11 2016, @03:12AM

        by Pino P (4721) on Monday January 11 2016, @03:12AM (#287936) Journal

        At least you were able to find the drivers. On GNU/Linux, a lot of times, the drivers just plain don't exist at all. There are scanners with no SANE driver, for instance.

  • (Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:37AM

    by Hairyfeet (75) <bassbeast1968NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:37AM (#287561) Journal

    Except with Windows there is always a much easier way whereas with Linux you have Bash and...yeah that is pretty much it, and you better know enough about scripting to be able to edit those bash commands because its often written for rev foo, firmware bar and if you have rev foo hardware bar+1? Its not gonna work because Linux is picky as hell about that. Compare that to Windows where I have several reg files that go all the way back to Win2K that works just fine on Windows 10, I can send them to somebody, clicky clicky reboot and done.

    As for the much easier way to fix this problem? Say hello to GWX control panel [betanews.com], tada! Just run it, clicky clicky, reboot and done. Your grandma could run this thing and in fact I've sent links to it to 70 year olds who had no issue running it, think they could have edited and run bash commands? Not a chance in hell.

    --
    ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:16PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 10 2016, @01:16PM (#287598)

      On GNU/Linux we don't have to do anything to avoid windows 10 Spy Edition...

    • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:13PM

      by HiThere (866) on Sunday January 10 2016, @10:13PM (#287832) Journal

      ??? Either how long since you used Linux, or what version are you running.

      I can believe that PuppyLinux or Blackbox might be that text oriented, but Red Hat hasn't been that text oriented in at least a decade, and neither has Debian. And most other distros are based off of those two. Slackware *might* be that text oriented, I haven't looked at it in a long time. I don't believe that Gentoo still is, though it used to be.

      Just because you CAN do nearly anything via a text based interface doesn't mean that's either the only way or the most common way. It may well be the most commonly explained way because both the text interface is the easiest to explain and it's the one that requires the most explanation.

      --
      Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
      • (Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Monday January 11 2016, @12:06AM

        by Hairyfeet (75) <bassbeast1968NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Monday January 11 2016, @12:06AM (#287877) Journal

        Have Pulse break, what do you get? Bash commands. Graphic issues, network issues, can't get your wireless working? Bash bash and oh yeah, Bash.

        Sorry but if everything works perfectly then and ONLY then you won't need Bash, update/upgrade the OS, have an issue? Then you quickly find that nothing works in Linux without bash, in fact I dare you to disable Bash and you'll find the entire OS will not run without Bash, in many ways Linux is just like Win9X in that it will not work without the primitive shell known as Bash required behind the scenes, similar to Win9X and DOS.

        --
        ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
        • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday January 11 2016, @07:45PM

          by HiThere (866) on Monday January 11 2016, @07:45PM (#288323) Journal

          There are, indeed, things you can't do without bash. But since you can even recompile the kernel that's not surprising. I believe that everything you can do without text commands on MSWind, you can also do without text commands on most Linux versions. Now I'll grant you that it's now been over 15 years since I so much as looked at MSWind, so my belief might be obsolete. But I remember text editing the repository to get the graphics driver to work.

          That said, it is true that more hardware is tested with MSWind than is ever tested with Linux, so if you are using barely supported hardware you may get into places where you need to shell script. I prefer to avoid buying such hardware. So my experience is that I use bash scripting more often than I am required to.

          --
          Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
          • (Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday January 12 2016, @06:35AM

            by Hairyfeet (75) <bassbeast1968NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday January 12 2016, @06:35AM (#288542) Journal

            You do not realize how much of a crutch that Bash has become with Linux. With OSX and Windows sure you CAN use Powershell or whatever shell OSX has but you never have to as you ALWAYS have options.

            Like I said just try removing Bash, use chmod to remove access to bash and see what happens, like Win9X with DOS the OS won't even boot without the thing, THAT is how much of a crutch its become. That is why I've said for years that Linux is a server OS, great in server and embedded roles, but will never be a decent desktop OS because nobody working on the thing are willing to do the work required to bring Linux up to the same level of ease of use as Windows and OSX.

            Sure if you sit down and do a shitload of homework to pick just the right hardware (which just FYI even THAT will sometimes bite you in the ass as Linux forums USED to tell everyone to buy Aetheros wireless, until the kernel devs shat all over the Aetheros drivers) you can get a working system but I could so the exact same to build a Hackentosh, that isn't practical for the mass majority. Until you can just walk into Walmart and see a penguin on the box and know it'll work? Its just not gonna ever get above the sub 2% its been for the better part of 20 years.

            --
            ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
            • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday January 12 2016, @07:39PM

              by HiThere (866) on Tuesday January 12 2016, @07:39PM (#288748) Journal

              What does "the system won't boot without bash" have to do with "You have to use bash too much". (Yeah, I know that isn't what you said. But trying to figure out what you meant by "too much of a crutch" isn't making any sense to me.)

              Yes, the SYSTEM uses bash a lot. So what. The user doesn't need to use it, and for well over a decade perfectly useable accounts have been createable which had access to ALL shell scripting languages forbidden. I once made accounts for people who only had access to a database script which I wrote, and the only access they had to it was via a graphics interface. (Well, OK, this was actually under an old Altos AT&T UNIX system, but doing the same thing under Linux would be trivial.)

              It's my suspicion that most Linux users these days never touch shell scripting. This is certainly true for many users. That the system uses shell scripts is totally irrelevant.

              --
              Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
              • (Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday January 13 2016, @09:44AM

                by Hairyfeet (75) <bassbeast1968NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday January 13 2016, @09:44AM (#288997) Journal

                Because it shows how badly ingrained in the minds of the devs it is? Everyone else moved away from using shells as a critical part of the boot process because its a bad idea as it can cause all kinds of dependency hell and version hell, but not Linux, because the devs simply cannot fathom doing squat without Bash.

                Here is a simply experiment that will show you I am right...pick a support forum, any forum, be it Ubuntu, PCLOS, you take your pick. Now give them a simple problem, say "graphics driver won't load" or "sound hardware not detected", now ask them for a GUI solution when they immediately start their "open up Bash and type" mantra and see what you get...you will get cursed, insulted, accused of being a shill, when the simple fact of the matter is they can't do it without bash because no matter how simple the issue they only know how to go to Bash, its a crutch they just will not let go of.

                this is why I will always compare Linux NOT to Win2K on up but to Win9X, because just like with Win9X where every solution offered was to bypass the OS and go straight for the shell? The same holds true for Linux. this is fine in a server role where there usually isn't a GUI in the first place but its simply unacceptable in a consumer OS. Ironically the most popular consumer OS that uses Linux is Android by far and what was the very first thing Google did, in the very first release? Removed the shell. Because of this apps do not depend on the shell and frankly the OS is better for it. Now look at how many "programs" in Linux are nothing more than glorified screen scrapers that simply use the GUI to create a list of commands for Bash, hell there is hundreds and hundreds of them, video and text conversion just to name 2 are practically all screen scrapers, why? Because they have leaned on bash for so long they simply do not know how to write a proper program without it.

                I wish it weren't so but I've seen enough to know its sadly all too true.

                --
                ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
                • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday January 13 2016, @07:43PM

                  by HiThere (866) on Wednesday January 13 2016, @07:43PM (#289237) Journal

                  OK, I understand that you don't like even the system shell scripting. That's a good reason for you to use something else. I don't think it's an argument that many people would even understand, and of those who understood it I believe that most would disagree.

                  --
                  Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.