Windows 10 data collection

[smoggy07]

Most Linux Distros these days can mount and read NTFS drives automatically, so you should be ok.

And, if not, there are Commands you can run instead.

I do have a half laptop (a Lenovo Ideapad with the screen removed) with Centos 7 installed but I couldn't for the life of me get a USB stick formatted into NTFS or get it to read NTFS formatted sticks, I did try to make a bootable win10 USB stick so I could try a repair but I couldn't suss it.
That's why I thought I'd ask

What does the computer you connected the drive to "see"? Does it mount the HD as an extra HD or external drive? Maybe you can just go straight in from "My PC", or whatever it's called on your computer.

I could browse the content of the HDD, the Windows folder, documents and settings (but not my user account documents or desktop where the majority of my files lived) and program files so I know it's not goosed, it's no real loss it's only an 80gb (don't laugh)

I'm going to have a play with a few different distros and see if I can find one I like, I'd prefer one I could install MariaDB, Apache and Asterisk on so if I can find one that's not too resource hungry I'll give it a go

 

[Analoguesat]

Have a look at Peppermint 7. Ive had that running this week on an ancient old laptop which Ive fixed up for a friend and its light enough on resources to run nicely on it.

 

[jeallen01]

Found a funny thing relating to the results of creating a bootable USB W10 update drive, or, or more precisely, 4 of them for the different versions (Home 32 & 64 bit, Pro 32 & 64 bit) of W7 across the PCs we have using the main one running 64 bit Pro (actually the Ultimate version which I upgraded to by mistake a couple of years ago!) - and then those damned annoying daily W10 update prompts just stopped coming on that machine!

OTOH, thought I would try the same thing on the small laptop running W7 64 bit Home - so created a bootable USB drive using that but the update prompts still keep coming.

Now about to try the same thing on the new (to me ) ACER mini-PC running W7 64 bit Pro and see what happens.

 

[jeallen01]

Just done created the USB drive via the ACER running W7 Pro 64 bit, and after I did that then there was a big W10 "invitation" on the screen due to some updates that must have automatically downloaded at the same as creating the USB boot drive.

However, when I rebooted the machine, whilst that little W10 update icon appeared in the Taskbar, there have been no pop-up "invitation" messages on the screen since then (whereas the little laptop running W7 Home 64 bit gets at least two every time it boots up or comes out of "Sleep" mode.).

So, it looks like that if you are running Pro versions of W7 (or at least the 64 bit versions), and creat a bootable USB drive, but not actually upgrading the machine OS, that action then fools the update process into stopping the pop-ups - as above, this does not seem to work on machines running the Home Edition.

 

[4wd]

Finally, they're fixing the update machination:

Microsoft’s Windows chief Al Capone said in a written statement:
"we’ve received feedback that some of our valued customers found it confusing"
Confusing... it was 100% planned to fool users.

Microsoft backs off sneaky Windows 10 upgrade tricks with simple new pop-up

 

[Lazarus]

I find it hard to fault Windows 10, once all the Privacy issues were dealt with.

And I have sworn by Linux for years.

Got Mint, Lubuntu, Win 10 and Android, so all bases covered!

 

[lovelyperson]

I find it hard to fault Windows 10, once all the Privacy issues were dealt with..........

Yep, sums it up for me as well.

 

[Archive-8]

Windows 10 worked right away, with my cctv dvr. No adding active x addons, just typed in the IP address and bang right to the log in page.

 

[Lazarus]

Excellent, the Wexit campaign is finally losing ground!

 

[timo_w2s]

I've ordered a new laptop which should be with me by the end of the week and it'll be my first "full time" experience of Win 10... (I've only used it in the past on other family and client's PCs)

 

[Archive-8]

Windows 10 imho is the best one yet, most things I run/do all just work.

No mucking around with active x etc.

Hope the new laptop turns up soon.

 

[jeallen01]

Having 5 machines to keep reasonably in sync OS-wise, I'm trying to take a steady approach to this - one step at a time starting with the least used/important ones and working my way up!

Did a similar W10 upgrade download to a USB stick on the old Dell laptop running V7 Pro 32 bit - and that was neither prompting me to upgrade to W10 before or after the download.

However, out of curiosity, I then clicked on the W10 upgrade icon on the Taskbar to see what it said - which was that the machine was going to be automatically upgraded in a very few days!!!!! The same turned out to be true on my main Samsung laptop, and my wife's machine, which is identical to my old Dell but running W7 Home Premium.

Managed to cancel both upgrades - the Pro m/c's were straightforward to do, but the Home Premium m/c was actually more convoluted as you first have to change the scheduled date time before you can cancel it!

Very sneaky, but then I think we all knew that anyway:mad:

 

[timo_w2s]

Windows 10 imho is the best one yet, most things I run/do all just work.

No mucking around with active x etc.

Hope the new laptop turns up soon.

Thanks. Just got an email saying it'll be delivered tomorrow morning... so then the fun with W10 begins...

 

[Archive4]

 

[Topper]

I have to say that whilst The Edge is a professional mining operation, I have to say that I love the functionality it has where you can cast direct to your TV with no added hardware such as a Chromecast USB stick

 

[4wd]

The w10 OS itself is good, been testing most of the releases since the start. Grumble is with AlCaponeSoft's business practices regarding privacy, tons of hidden network activity, hiding choices, tricking 'normal' users into accepting whatever, troubles for lots of people regarding upgrade, and some more.

Using & testing 10 here, very stable and reliable, that part is fine. Privacy mining contained with O&O Shutup10, store-cloud-(cr)apps removed, Classic Shell as menu, and a collection of entries in etc/hosts. Only left to fix is full\better control over driver updates. But no hurry here, got many 8.1's that behave perfect. 7 is fast becoming 'a bridge to nowhere', 8.1 still got a long life.

Of course, w10 is the future and one must deal with it, available tools goes a long way to make one's PC a Personal Computer instead of a Microsoft Computer. Will probably convert some unused 7 & 8 retail licences before the end of july.

Some useful info for anyone caring about staying in control:
Comparison of Windows 10 Privacy tools - gHacks Tech News

 

[jeallen01]

Just restarted the laptop running W7 Home Premium 64 bit and tried to do the same thing as I did on the previous 3 machines to cancel the upgrade - no luck as it will only upgrade now or download and update later. Looks like I will have to do that one first from one of the USB sticks so that I might have a bit more control - Luckily, that's one of the least important machines.

That was yesterday, and today I realised that the prompting messages had stopped - so it looks like that if you start the download but stop it immediately by switching the machine off with the "Big Button" then the prompts stop coming up because it "thinks" that W10 has now been installed (the W10 icon is still on the Taskbar, but does not seem to do anything unless you click on it).

Then took a chance and went through a full W10 upgrade on the least important W7 Pro machine (the new little ACER) - chose the Custom Install route and switched off everything I could by that route. Then installed O&O ShutUP 10 and that found a lot more intrusive things that I should have able to switch off but was not prompted about during the installation. Followed O&O recommendation and switched nearly every damned thing off.

W10 now looks quite nice after you switch the abysmal initial homescreen image to one of the other options - just playing around for a few days to see what I think of it.

 

[skomedal]

Will probably convert some unused 7 & 8 retail licences before the end of july.

Will also convert one of my spare win7 to try win 10.

If happy will convert 2 of the other 4 spare lappies.

Regards

 

[A nonymous]

The only thing that p***ed me off about windows 10 is when it set my files hard drive to read only. Took a load of messing about to sort the issue out.

Apparently this is something that Microshaft have known about for a long time and have chose to do nothing about it. I've gone back to using Windows 7 and Gentoo Linux.

 

[Captain Jack]

The wife is now being spammed with propaganda from MS to force her to upgrade to W10 because her Windows Live 2012 mail application(!) will no longer be 'compatible' with outlook.com/hotmail/etc services as of today.....

Using Windows Live Mail 2012 with Outlook.com? Time to update your email application! - Office Blogs

Windows Live Mail 2012 Will Not Work With the New Outlook.com - Thurrott.com

A-holes...