Free upgrade to Windows 10

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Thu, 30. Jun 16, 17:02

felter wrote:For the life of me I spend more time on google trying to find information on how to do this that and the next thing with windows 10, as it just does not work the way I want an operating system to work.

It's still possible to mostly do things like Windows 7--e.g. you can right-click the Start button and get the old control panel up, in all its usable, logical glory (seriously, WTF is that cobblers Settings panel Windows 10 wants us to use?). Do you have some specific examples of stuff that's difficult to do?

BugMeister · Post by **BugMeister** » Fri, 1. Jul 16, 00:22

- it's all running beautifully here..

- oops!

Post by **Terre** » Fri, 1. Jul 16, 09:10

Hidden kbqfe kbsurveynew KB3173040

felter · Post by **felter** » Sat, 2. Jul 16, 02:54

Finally got CD and DVD working the way I want and no longer opening the Microsoft store every-time I put a dvd/cd into my DVD drive. I have also managed to get xnview working as my preferred picture/photo viewer instead of Microsoft's photo, even though it was not appearing in the list of preferred photo viewers. By the way, every-time you use Microsoft's photo viewer, it sends all the metadata about that photo back to Microsoft, that's a lot of information. While some would call it just data, myself I would actually call it very personal information.

I would take a guess and say the likes of Groove music and the rest of Microsoft apps also send back all the data of anything that they are used to play, back to Microsoft. So be warned don't use Microsoft apps.

felter · Post by **felter** » Sat, 2. Jul 16, 03:03

If you are wondering what kind of data is sent back, here is the data from one of my photos. tells you everything from when it was taken, to what software I used to edit it and when I edited it, and all the information on the camera used and the settings used. The camera used doesn't have GPS, if it did it would also tell where the picture was taken.

XMP
XMP Toolkit XMP Core 5.1.2
Y Cb Cr Positioning Co-sited
Creator Tool PaintShop Pro 16.00
Modify Date 2014:07:21 17:10:04.00000002+01:00
1 year, 11 months, 11 days, 8 hours, 46 minutes, 41 seconds ago
Create Date 2014:07:21 17:10:04.00000002+01:00
1 year, 11 months, 11 days, 8 hours, 46 minutes, 41 seconds ago
F Number 5.6
Date/Time Original 2014:07:21 17:10:04.00000002+01:00
1 year, 11 months, 11 days, 8 hours, 46 minutes, 41 seconds ago
Flash Fired False
Flash Return No return detection
Flash Mode Unknown
Flash Function False
Flash Red Eye Mode False
User Comment

EXIF — this group of metadata is encoded in 8,190 bytes (8.0k)
Y Cb Cr Coefficients
Software PaintShop Pro 16.00
IPTC-NAA (13 bytes binary data)
Sub Sec Time 20
Sub Sec Time Original 20
Sub Sec Time Digitized 20
Flash No Flash
CFA Pattern [Green,Blue][Red,Green]
Compression JPEG (old-style)
X Resolution 72
Y Resolution 72
Thumbnail Length 4,011
Make NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model Name NIKON D3100
Orientation Horizontal (normal)
Modify Date 2014:07:21 17:10:04
1 year, 11 months, 11 days, 46 minutes, 41 seconds ago
Create Date 2014:07:21 17:10:04
1 year, 11 months, 11 days, 46 minutes, 41 seconds ago
Exposure Time 1/40
F Number 5.60
Exposure Program Aperture-priority AE
ISO 200
Exif Version 0221
Date/Time Original 2014:07:21 17:10:04
1 year, 11 months, 11 days, 46 minutes, 41 seconds ago
Components Configuration Y, Cb, Cr, -
Compressed Bits Per Pixel 4
Exposure Compensation 0
Max Aperture Value 5.7
Metering Mode Spot
Light Source Fine Weather
Focal Length 52.0 mm
User Comment
Flashpix Version 0100
Color Space sRGB
Sensing Method One-chip color area
File Source Digital Camera
Scene Type Directly photographed
Custom Rendered Normal
Exposure Mode Auto
Digital Zoom Ratio 1
Focal Length In 35mm Format 78 mm
Scene Capture Type Standard
Gain Control None
Contrast Normal
Resolution 300 pixels/inch
Saturation Normal
Sharpness Normal
Subject Distance Range Unknown
GPS Version ID 2.2.0.0
Image Size 3,326 × 2,217
White Balance Manual

IPTC
Date Created 2014:07:21
1 year, 11 months, 11 days, 17 hours, 56 minutes, 45 seconds ago

JFIF
JFIF Version 1.01
Resolution 300 pixels/inch

File — basic information derived from the file.
File Type JPEG
MIME Type image/jpeg
Exif Byte Order Little-endian (Intel, II)
Encoding Process Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
Bits Per Sample 8
Color Components 3
File Size 296 kB
File Type Extension jpg
Image Size 3,326 × 2,217
Y Cb Cr Sub Sampling YCbCr4:2:0 (2 2)

Composite
This block of data is computed based upon other items. Some of it may be wildly incorrect, especially if the image has been resized.

Flash No Flash
Aperture 5.60
Megapixels 7.4
Scale Factor To 35 mm Equivalent 1.5
Shutter Speed 1/40
Create Date 2014:07:21 17:10:04.20
1 year, 11 months, 11 days, 46 minutes, 41 seconds ago
Date/Time Original 2014:07:21 17:10:04.20
1 year, 11 months, 11 days, 46 minutes, 41 seconds ago
Modify Date 2014:07:21 17:10:04.20
1 year, 11 months, 11 days, 46 minutes, 41 seconds ago
Thumbnail Image (4,011 bytes binary data)
Circle Of Confusion 0.020 mm
Field Of View 26.0 deg
Focal Length 52.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 78.0 mm)
Hyperfocal Distance 24.11 m
Light Value 9.3

BugMeister · Post by **BugMeister** » Sat, 2. Jul 16, 21:52

- neat, huh..?

red assassin · Post by **red assassin** » Sat, 2. Jul 16, 22:05

Well, I did my Win 10 upgrade today. Turns out the presence of more than one disk drive in a computer is a bit too advanced and unusual a concept for the installer to cope with (and naturally, producing a useful error message rather than "unspecified error" and an error code under such circumstances would be silly), but once I'd unplugged my other drives it installed fine and everything seems to be behaving itself.

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Sat, 2. Jul 16, 22:12

@ red assassin: My upgrade worked fine with multiple drives installed.

I guess that if you were installing from an ISO image or bootable installation code on a flashdrive or DVD then you might have to tell the PC in BIOS to ignore the usual boot drive and boot on the temporary medium first instead. Much depends on your prior BIOS boot set up - but that is pretty normal and not special to Win10 if that situation applied in your case.

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Sat, 2. Jul 16, 22:51

felter wrote:.... By the way, every-time you use Microsoft's photo viewer, it sends all the metadata about that photo back to Microsoft, that's a lot of information. While some would call it just data, myself I would actually call it very personal information....

This is disturbing. Are you sure that this information is actually being transmitted to Microsoft?

EXIF data can contain a wealth of information. Most of the time, it's automatically added to the photograph by the camera software. If the camera is so equipped, like most cell-phones are, today, it can even contain location information.

I once warned a user here, on this forum, that posted a personally taken picture, but had thought they had taken steps to protect their anonymity. I PM'd them the latitude/longitude of where the picture was taken along with a Google map pic of the area. (That was a long time ago. I hope they didn't think I was some weirdo!

)

The point is that there is NO PURPOSE for Microsoft to collect metadata that could possibly have anything to do with any sort of customer service, service improvement or OperatingSystem/Network "Quality of Service" matter. Every picture can have different information, many not having anything to do with the user at all. (ie: You get a snapshot of your relatives and open it with the program in question.)

IMO - This is grounds for a lawsuit, if true.

red assassin · Post by **red assassin** » Sun, 3. Jul 16, 00:41

Alan Phipps wrote:@ red assassin: My upgrade worked fine with multiple drives installed.

I guess that if you were installing from an ISO image or bootable installation code on a flashdrive or DVD then you might have to tell the PC in BIOS to ignore the usual boot drive and boot on the temporary medium first instead. Much depends on your prior BIOS boot set up - but that is pretty normal and not special to Win10 if that situation applied in your case.

I have multiple bootable drives (Linux/Windows dual boot), which seems to have been the issue. There are a number of reports of this on the internet - multiple drives + OSes installed, obscure error code and no further details, fixed by unplugging the other drives while the upgrade runs. I dunno, it seems dumb, but it certainly worked.

Chips · Post by **Chips** » Sun, 3. Jul 16, 11:14

Morkonan wrote:The point is that there is NO PURPOSE for Microsoft to collect metadata that could possibly have anything to do with any sort of customer service, service improvement or OperatingSystem/Network "Quality of Service" matter. Every picture can have different information, many not having anything to do with the user at all. (ie: You get a snapshot of your relatives and open it with the program in question.)

IMO - This is grounds for a lawsuit, if true.

Are you a lawyer or versed in law?

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Sun, 3. Jul 16, 13:23

Chips wrote:
Morkonan wrote:...
IMO - This is grounds for a lawsuit, if true.
Are you a lawyer or versed in law?

No.

But, in my defense, anything can be grounds for a lawsuit...

Electronic privacy is fast-becoming a big issue. But, commercial privacy invasions are largely being ignored, mostly due to the large amounts of money involved and a long history of consumer complacency, mostly due to ignorance.

There's no reason for Microsoft to collect EXIF information. I actually don't think they do collect it, which is why I asked. However, from a little poking around on the 'net in various places, some people are making the claim that what Microsoft may be doing is collecting hash information for individual photographs viewed, the supposed purpose being to assist law-enforcement in catching sickos.. That's unconfirmed, as well. Another source says that information might be collected regarding certain photo orientations, sizes, types, etc, in order to discover how users most use the software. Still, another source I read says that only basic program use information is collected, assisting Microsoft in learning how often a user might use a program.

In short - There's a lot of "this might be happening" out there sorts of stuff, but little in the way of actual fact backed by evidence.

I don't like it when software companies attempt to piggyback information collection mechanics and/or attempt to increase the monetization of the software a user is faithfully using while under the assumption that their formal relationship with the company is over after the purchase of the software.

Software, operating systems or not, should not supposed be some hundred year-old child that a consumer is doomed to be intimately harried and exploited by for the rest of their lives.

BugMeister · Post by **BugMeister** » Tue, 5. Jul 16, 02:19

Morkonan wrote:Software, operating systems or not, should not supposed be some hundred year-old child
that a consumer is doomed to be intimately harried and exploited by for the rest of their lives.

- that's a bit severe.. (?)

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Tue, 5. Jul 16, 02:50

BugMeister wrote:
Morkonan wrote:Software, operating systems or not, should not supposed be some hundred year-old child
that a consumer is doomed to be intimately harried and exploited by for the rest of their lives.
- that's a bit severe.. (?)

There's no comprehension expiration date for user/privacy information in the United States. Companies can keep data for as long as they can maintain some useful purpose for it or make a claim of doing so.

And, there's no expiration date when Microsoft will stop collecting user information as long as you're using Windows. If you're using it, a great deal of information is being collected, kept, and sold, depending upon what you use and whether or not you've taken sometimes extraordinary steps to restrict data collection.

And, nothing every vanishes from teh interwebz...

Tracker001 · Post by **Tracker001** » Tue, 5. Jul 16, 08:26

Forced Microsoft Windows 10 Upgrade Explained - Why?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXTWCqTRIag

By Barnacules who worked for MS for 10+ years .

If you watch any of it , do yourself a favor and watch it all .

Get GWX control Panel
http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Tue, 5. Jul 16, 09:18

Morkonan wrote: There's no comprehension expiration date for user/privacy information in the United States. Companies can keep data for as long as they can maintain some useful purpose for it or make a claim of doing so.

We have the Data Protection Act over here which basically says you can ask any company at any time to tell you what information they hold on you, and they have to tell you. Admittedly, it's not perfect--there are all sorts of loopholes that mean information can be withheld--but sounds like it's still better than what you have over there.

BugMeister · Post by **BugMeister** » Wed, 6. Jul 16, 14:40

- so, your argument against being offered a free upgrade to Windows 10
is that it is "Big Brother"..??

- why should I believe you..?

Tracker001 · Post by **Tracker001** » Wed, 6. Jul 16, 17:23

BugMeister wrote:- so, your argument against being offered a free upgrade to Windows 10
is that it is "Big Brother"..??

- why should I believe you..?

Microsoft is just now catching up with the Goo-ga-ledge and the like in the realm of Data collection .

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Wed, 6. Jul 16, 19:07

pjknibbs wrote:...--but sounds like it's still better than what you have over there.

It is.

In fact, in regards to general privacy protection and commercial private data collection, Europe has led the way, for the most part.

However, despite the headlines and general appearances, the U.S. has better protections and guidelines regarding the government collection of private information/data of its citizens.

Aaaaand.... That's somewhat due to the fact that the U.S. spies more on citizens outside of the U.S. than its own citizens, who are much more protected against U.S. government data collection than non-U.S. citizens. US agencies have no/little restrictions when it comes down to "spying" abroad.

So, we have that going for us, I guess...

That's not to say there are no abuses going on, though.

But, in terms of the commercial abuse of online privacy and information gathering by commercial entities, I think the U.S. lags horribly behind some other countries/entities.

BugMeister wrote:- so, your argument against being offered a free upgrade to Windows 10
is that it is "Big Brother"..??

- why should I believe you..?

(Not sure if this is directed at me or not.)

It's the principle of the matter, in my opinion. A company that does not fully disclose what it is doing when it is offering a very complex product to a consumer is operating unethically.

Imagine if you bought a car from a company and they said that they're going to be collecting "just a little bit" of data in order to "increase the quality of your experience" of the automobile?

Then, you discover through third-party consumer watch-groups that they're collecting data on everything that you do with the car, everywhere you go, everyone who rides in it, everyone who uses it, everyone who looks at it and where you shop, where you drop off your kids to go to school, who all your friends are (even if they never ride in the car), where you park when you're having sex in the back seat and how many thrusts you make and how long your average sexual experience lasts while in the car and what radio station you're listening to as well as how many times you or your partner scream out in pleasure and exactly what either you or your partner said or what anyone else in the car has ever said?

That example isn't far from what data Windows 10 is actually constructed to collect and transmit back to Microsoft, given some loose interpretations of the above example.

With it in its default state, there is little data concerning your use of the computer and the internet that Windows 10 is not designed to collect and transmit back to Microsoft. While there are some "protections" involved to supposedly prevent individual personal information being directly associated with a specific data-set, the fact is that it takes absurdly little effort to connect all user data with personally identifiable information, rendering any privacy protection implied in Windows 10 laughably ineffective.

This is Microsoft's bid to finally make their O.S. a profit generator. (It has been a loss-leader for decades.) Further, by making Windows 10 a multi-platform O.S., able to be used on the Microsoft phone, X-Box and PC, Microsoft can create a "one O.S. to rule them all" and consolidate its entire user-base under one inescapable umbrella.

It's nothing that other companies have not tried before, but the scope of this effort is what is most disturbing. With full distribution and implementation, Microsoft will have easy access to more personal information regarding PC users and their specific habits than just about any government agency, solely because they are a commercial entity and are not bound by many governmental restrictions (such as they are) regarding the privacy of citizens.

pixel · Post by **pixel** » Wed, 6. Jul 16, 19:45

Is there any actual good reason to upgrade to Windows 10?

The only things I can think of are:

- when they stop security support for Win7 in January 2020?
- DirectX 12 for games?

Also, do you need to give Microsoft your email address when installing it?

Thanks

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Free upgrade to Windows 10