Ask Slashdot: Any Idiosyncrasies of the New Windows 10 April 2018 Update? 149
shanen wants to know if anyone else has noticed any idiosyncrasies of the new Windows 10 April 2018 update, which was released on April 30th (global rollout on May 8): Only two machines so far [are running the new version of Windows 10], but I already noticed a few peculiarities. Do you have any to share? Here are mine so far:
1. Microsoft prefers tightly linking the machine to a Microsoft account, for example via Outlook.com. If you have a machine that is not linked that way, the antivirus software will now attempt to force a link to a Microsoft account. And what is that new PIN supposed to be about?
2. Accessing a gateway on the wrong private network can produce a hard freeze, forcing a hard reset from the power down state. Possibly a serious security vulnerability to the point where I'm not sure I should share the details in public.
Anything you've noticed about the new Windows 10? (Now I have to get back to dealing with the new OS X update and the latest Ubuntu...) Some of the new features include the ability to resume past activities in timeline, a file sharing feature with nearby devices, a rebuilt Game Bar with a new Fluent design UI, and a diagnostic data viewing tool in the Security and Privacy section. If you want to get the update before the global rollout, you can do so via Check for Updates under Windows Update.
1. Microsoft prefers tightly linking the machine to a Microsoft account, for example via Outlook.com. If you have a machine that is not linked that way, the antivirus software will now attempt to force a link to a Microsoft account. And what is that new PIN supposed to be about?
2. Accessing a gateway on the wrong private network can produce a hard freeze, forcing a hard reset from the power down state. Possibly a serious security vulnerability to the point where I'm not sure I should share the details in public.
Anything you've noticed about the new Windows 10? (Now I have to get back to dealing with the new OS X update and the latest Ubuntu...) Some of the new features include the ability to resume past activities in timeline, a file sharing feature with nearby devices, a rebuilt Game Bar with a new Fluent design UI, and a diagnostic data viewing tool in the Security and Privacy section. If you want to get the update before the global rollout, you can do so via Check for Updates under Windows Update.
Blue Screen While Upgrading (Score:2)
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When I see stuff like this I feel that there's no point in "upgrading" from Windows 7.
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Actually, I upgraded my PC and laptop to Win10 from Win7 long after the upgrade window supposedly ended. I don't remember where the instructions were, but it did not involve anything illegal--I went straight to the Microsoft site and got the upgrade.
In case anyone wonders why, it was so I could get the Linux subsystem for Windows. I do regard the Win7 UI as overall better, so I used ClassicShell and WinAero Tweeker to restore some semblance of elegance. (Otherwise Win7 is to Indiana Jones with Harrison F
What did I actually want? (Score:2)
When I see stuff like this I feel that there's no point in "upgrading" from Windows 7.
Seems to be the best place to comment on my initial feedback to Microsoft. In summary, I said that NONE of the featured new features interested me at all. What I actually WANT from EVERY upgrade is faster, more secure, and better protection of my private information. I have not yet detected ANY evidence that any of my REAL desires is being addressed by this upgrade.
So far I would say that the new version is mostly slower, I feel LESS secure with this PIN thing, and I feel no better about entrusting so much
Re: What did I actually want? (Score:2)
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Rather thoughtless and rude ad hominem and vacuous tripe. While I generally disapprove of negative mods, maybe I'd make an exception in cases such as this. If Slashdot supported EPR in a proper way, the effort to damage the reputation might be justified, though it would probably be unneeded as the identity would have already rendered itself invisible.
But if you [4931623] have nothing to say, why don't you just say nothing?
Re:Blue Screen While Upgrading (Score:5, Insightful)
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Any self-respecting programmer knows there is no holy grail OS, not Linux, not Windows, not OS/X or whatever OS you can think of.
Well said! (and I'm a Red Hat guy) None of them are perfect and each has their own place and target market.
Re:Blue Screen While Upgrading (Score:5, Interesting)
No OS is perfect, it's true. But Linux has one thing going for it that neither Windows 10, iOS or Android have: it's not designed to put my ass under surveillance and rape my privacy behind my back.
I'll take any OS designed with honesty in mind, however flawed, over an OS backed by big data any day of the week.
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I installed Windows 10 Home (April 2018) on a computer a couple days ago. I just installed it without the network plugged in. A bit of configuring and most all that stuff is gone. You can even turn off the telemetry service. Add a good hosts fil
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In the interest of finding some concrete details, I just searched for "PowerShell remove Store apps", and came up with this very useful page (lots of others came up, but this one looked good enough): https://www.askvg.com/guide-ho... [askvg.com].
There's some info on editing the hosts file here: https://www.bleepingcomputer.c... [bleepingcomputer.com], with some links to sample hosts files that block certain ads servers. But it would be useful to know how editing the hosts file can be used to reduce telemetry without (for example) blocking u
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Right, none are perfect. But many are so much better than modern Windows. It's a wasp's nest full of DLLs and components, and the kernel itself has become almost an afterthought when referring to Windows as an "OS".
The biggest problems comes from it demanding continuous backward's compatibility for such a long time, combined with many sharp turns in directions to go into new directions while leaving the older stuff in place to languish over time, and a development staff that by all indications are full of
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Good summary and I wish I had a mod point to give you.
I think the broader problem is corporate cancerism. Capitalism is deader than communism and socialism remains a pipe dream. What we have now is worship of profit: "There is no gawd but profit, and Apple is gawd's #1 prophet." Microsoft used to be #1, but nowadays not so much. Any OS driven by profit maximization is trying to solve a fake problem, because there is NO solution to the "problem" of "needing" an infinitely large profit.
In terms of solutions,
Avoiding the trollage with EPR (Score:2)
I think you're playing with a troll of the AC stripe, though it's possible he did put his name on it and just got negatively modded into invisibility. You didn't sufficiently pique my curiosity to get me to click on Parent, so I'll never know.
What I do know is that Slashdot could be improved to be a better tool for positive interactions. I even think that EPR (Earned Public Reputation) could be an approach to help. Call it karma on steroids? Basically there should be a more symmetric and stronger relationsh
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The same can be said about any platform that has legacy content, which causes problems further down the line (including technical debt, or various tutorials that still reference less effective functions.) This is why both Windows and Unix are more complex than they should be - they're expected to be backwards compatible with something, and said compatibility can't be removed without crippling practically every single program.
If you dig down to ANSI C, you se
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Now I no that you, Anonymous Coward, have been a regular since the first days of Slashdot. But can you at least try to separate your tech views from your racist views at least once?
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When you've lived and developed long enough, you realize there's a newe
st and latest and greatest framework for something or other, that you can write to and that's the last major change you will have to make for ever and ever praise be the heavens!
Dot dot dot every few years.
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Re: Blue Screen While Upgrading (Score:1)
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New Drive Letter (Score:3, Interesting)
Had a drive letter assigned to one of the system partitions and received notifications that the drive was almost out of space. I removed the drive letter using diskpart.
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This happened to me too, and I wound up doing the same thing.
The only other thing was the removal of HomeGroup, which forced me to finish fixing my home network just to get printer sharing working again.
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I never understood what HomeGroup was supposed to offer over the previous system of file and printer sharing. The only differences I ever saw were that it had a new wizard, and used a generated PIN, which was next to impossible to find later if you needed to add a new system. Anyone out there who could explain it to me, just to satisfy my curiosity, since the feature is gone in all future versions of Windows.
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It offered a new system that was just as buggy as the old system, but the beauty is that it worked for me when the old system didn't. Now without it I was forced to actually fix the problem that was making my systems undiscoverable to one another, despite all settings being correct. Apparently a necessary service to make them discoverable wasn't firing on any of my 3 Windows 10 computers Fixed that and now it works just as well as it ever did.
3 new icons (Score:2)
Upgraded 2 days ago, no issues yet.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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Couple things typical of upgrading (Score:5, Interesting)
First off my Dell notebook went flawless upgrading and surprisingly fast with SSD. Only noticeable issue was possibly Chrome browser hanging sometimes with some sites. My wife's HP notebook had a more significantly long upgrade taking over two hours to download and upgrade. But her's runs way more apps and has significantly more files besides having a slow (5400) spin drive. The other issue is of course the upgrade reverts some defaults back to Microsoft products. Like PDF viewer which I set to Chrome and it defaulted back to Edge. This is a typical and expected complaint of upgrading and it appears Microsoft has still not learned to respect the users choice of defaults. Otherwise I don't give a shit about any of the new features, or Edge or anything other then don't break the shit I use!
Unethical push by Microsoft of Edge down throats? (Score:2)
I wish there were more mentions of that browser hang... Chrome in your case, but I just had a second hard hang with this machine. Pretty sure both of mine were with Firefox.
The first crash requiring power off is mentioned as part of the original story at the top, but I thought it was a network problem and now I'm inclined to suspect it was actually a Firefox crash that just coincidentally happened at that time. The second was a few minutes ago as I attempted to respond to this story... No idea of what the t
Still can't detect incompatible hardware (Score:5, Interesting)
Thank {deity} for the Windows tool that allows you to selectively disable major "upgrades" like this.
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If you have incompatible hardware, why run Windows 10? The primary job of an Operating System is to interact with the Hardware. If Windows 10 can't use it, why use Windows 10? Downgrade to Windows 7 (Or Linux (If Linux supports that hardware)), Replace the old hardware.
Having done software development, I understand we cant keep supporting legacy hardware forever, because that will prevent us getting the new features of the newer hardware. However if you need that hardware you should owe it to yourself t
Re:Still can't detect incompatible hardware (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Still can't detect incompatible hardware (Score:5, Informative)
The hardware is not incompatible with Windows 10 (if it's like the many I've dealt with), but Windows thinks it has a "better" graphics driver than the one you're using. Their "better" driver doesn't work at all. So you can roll back and block that driver. Next semi-annual update of Windows, the exact same driver has a new version number and new timestamp and you go through the whole process all over again.
Granted, this is usually AMD hardware that only works with a Windows 8 driver, but the fact is that it works until MS breaks it again.
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PREVIOUS versions of Windows 10 were compatible with the hardware, and they run great! (Remember how one of Windows 10's pitches was faster startup and leaner running?) That's how I got it installed. But Microsoft drops some device compatibility with each of these unnecessary and unwanted "feature" releases. I really just want the security patches.
Colors seem more vivid (Score:1)
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I can't sleep more than 30 minutes without waking in pain or having to pee, wake up exhausted, fail at giving myself a limp-willied handbeezy while thinking of some Netflix chick, and arrive late to work and ulcerate at the amount of hours I need to stay to keep up.
This has been the result of the first upgrade to Windows 2.11.
Re: Colors seem more vivid (Score:2)
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I noticed (Score:1)
Could be a feature, not a bug? (Score:2)
I noticed that seemed to be sending all my data to Microsoft. Is that normal?
Maybe it's part of a free backup service? You just have to do your recovery via the FBI or NSA, depending on where you live. If you've been an especially bad boy, you may have to appeal directly to Herr Donald. (Don't worry. He also don't read Slashdot.)
I'd give you the funny mod if I ever had a mod point to give. Unfortunately at this point I think that upgrades of the Slashdot moderation system are not coming... EVER.
Also thanks for reminding me of my initial feedback to MS, but I'll share that in another
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Microphone not detected (Score:1)
"Apps" (not just Store apps, but also win32) have microphone blocked by default. You need to go to "Microphone privacy settings" and turn on "Allow apps to access your microphone." I was able to do this to get a win32 application working, even with all the individual apps under "Choose which apps can access your microphone" set to "Off."
More details here: https://superuser.com/questions/1291985/microphone-not-working-on-windows-10-version-1803-insider-preview
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Thank you! That solved my problems with WSJT-X, FLDIGI and Audacity.
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Each time I install Win 10, I must go into Setting to set them to off. None of them are off by default.
Also, what on the win32 apps? They can still use my mic with this off.
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What the actually fuck. That is terrible. And stupid. And horseshit.
At the very fucking least, keep the win32 and UWP separate.
Slashdot's logs? (Score:1)
How many Slashdot users login from Windows? It would be nice to have the stats. Yea, I know, "I have to use it in the office, yada-yada". I also use it in the office for testing purposes (in a VM). But you are not supposed to use your work computer for Slashdot, right? :) I assume most people here use their own computer or mobile device. It would be nice to have the splits between OS and browsers.
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Many companies offer, as an employee retention perk, the privilege to use company equipment for personal web browsing while on break.
program problems (Score:4, Informative)
Logitech Setpoint and no more black color option (Score:3)
Logitech Setpoint customizations (such as Universal Scrolling) no longer works in UWP apps. It still works fine in desktop apps such as Internet Explorer but does not work in: Microsoft Edge, or the Office365 version of Office 2016. It worked fine the day before 1803 was installed. Uninstall/reinstall of Setpoint and the Logitech mouse driver does not fix it.
The other thing I noticed is that it is no longer possible to select the color black for your Windows 10 theme color, it forces the color to be gray instead.
Is there a way to avoid the update? (Score:2)
I've got a stable system that I like. Other than security updates, I don't want other changes.
I wish MS had stopped at Windows 7. But, you know, money...
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Re:Is there a way to avoid the update? (Score:5, Informative)
Switch to the "Semi-Annual Channel" rather than the "Targetted" one in the Windows Update Advanced settings. If you want a truly stable system you shouldn't be using the Targetted channel. If you don't have this option, upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, you're a tech head on a news for nerds site. Chances are you shouldn't be running the version targetted at common folk anyway.
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In other words, if you don't want MS to break your computer, pay MS some money and upgrade.
Pay peanuts and get monkeys.
Surprise, running the discounted stuff gets you all the joys of reduced functionality and adverts in your face. Wasn't that always the big complaints about the Android platform and why the iPhone with it's far larger ratio of non-free apps was superior?
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I wish MS had stopped at Windows 7. But, you know, money...
I stopped MSing at Windows 7. My other machine runs Linux. Even my Win7 machine dual-boots into Linux, for emergencies. Just say no.
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I'm doing game development in Unity with Visual Studio integration (it's actually a very nice situation), so I'm stuck with Windows 10.
Oddly enough, the current game was suggested by my 8 year old son, and it involves the latter part of your user name...
His twin sister suggested something with cats, we are working on the design concepts while I code her brother's game.
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Hear, hear! Another case of wishing that I sometimes had a mod point to give you.
Longer reaction in my comment about my initial feedback to Microsoft. I even think you would agree with me that more speed and more privacy would not be bad. (Security was the second item on my three-item list.)
You mean beside... (Score:1)
grub? (Score:2)
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Why wouldn't it? Checking and ensuring the boot load is exactly as windows expects it to be is a standard part of any OS installation. Running apt-get dist-upgrade will also overwrite grub. The only difference is you're already running it so nothing unexpected occurs :-)
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I didn't have any overwrite of GRUB on that machine (an oldish Toshiba). However I didn't have that problem with any of the recent updates of Windows. Pretty sure that machine was a multi-booter even under Windows 7 many years ago. (I only have three multi-booters now, and most of my machines are single OS boxen. All of them are getting increasingly old and decrepit, but it seems all my new machines are smartphones these days...)
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No (Score:2)
Nope (Score:1)
Hasn't had any effect at all on my Debian boxen, AFAICT.
I do continue to wonder why anyone uses Windows, though. My kids use it for gaming; I get that, sort of.
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Broken Hardware (Score:1)
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They don't want to fix the issue, because, since your computer doesn'T work, you will have to buy another one. profit for them.
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Login, Chrome and Displaylink (Score:2)
I have two computers with the new version.
Both of them ask me at every startup to add a faceID and a new code (4 digits code) to replace my password. I didn't find a way to get these nag screen off.
All menu in Chrome are not transparent without text... I manage to update chrome to the last version with the same result.
Displaylink need to be updated, if you use it.
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Pretty sure the nag screen you are talking about is part of the new security system. You may have better visibility on what is going on there if you come at it from the security settings, though I went in from the shield icon accessed from the task bar.
Now you have me wondering about the face ID thing, since neither of my machines asked me about it. Least not that I noticed. I did set up the PINs, but consider that less secure than before. Just another nuisance to be remembered and another link in the long
Don't upgrade with a Kaby Lake processor (Score:2)
Sure am glad... (Score:2)
Sooooo damn glad I quit pissing up a rope while using MS software. I used/supported Windows (and everything that goes with it) for 20 years as a sysadmin. When I retired in 2010, I decided I was DONE with anything MS.. Now Linux powers all my personal computers and quite a few friends/neighbors/relatives. These were done after they learned what *their* computers were spewing out into MS's greedy servers.. Now, reading these endless reports of the latest effort on MS's part to fuck up the world's computers,
Re: Sure am glad... (Score:2)
Good to know about attaching account (Score:1)
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There's literally no need for a Microsoft account to exist, they just added this as a means of spying and getting you locked in to their ecosystem. I found it absurd that their "Mail" metro app required a Microsoft account to start up when the actual mail account is something else.
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There is one (and the only) good reason: You can attach/transfer your Windows software key to your Microsoft account and this enables you to install and activate Win10 on any newly built or upgraded system without having to deal with Microsoft's tech support line.
I've used it a few times now when replacing the internals on my wife's machine - if you replace the motherboard, cpu, etc you normally will have to get Windows reactivated manually by one of their tech support operators (not sure how many activatio
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Microsoft really should just make it free. It already comes with advertisements and promotions of certain apps. Windows sole purpose at this point seems to be to support sales of its other software, such as Office, dev tools, back office server applications, etc. Note that I got Windows 8 Pro for $14.95, it's not a big stretch to drop that to $0.00.
Stilll sucks the same as before (Score:2)
No change for me.
A few issue (Score:3)
Installed those bullshit UWP apps again
Enabled Cortana again
Made the web search from the Start Menu harder to remove
Searching Internet Explorer on Start bring Edge up each time
Timeline is broken, disable when I removed the UWP garbage, or only works with a handful of apps.
All kinds of new bullshit to turn off in Settings
Turning back off all of the things that were turned back on
Added folders back to This PC
Still cant search when trying to set a default program by extension in Settings
One descent feature I found was the ability to force scroll bars to always show.
So all kinds of them.
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Thanks for the useful list and again I wish I had a mod point to give you. Hmm... Maybe Slashdot could "reward" submissions with a couple of mod points?
Mostly interesting items, but reminded me I need to make another attempt to figure out what that Cortana thing is. Been ignoring it for a while now, but maybe it's relevant for something.
About that PIN number (Score:2)
NOT impressed with the PIN idea, though one of the things it does is create a "shortcut" for unlocking the display. The obvious problem is PIN number fatigue and collapse, as in people who start reusing PINs because they have too many of them or who start writing them down in insufficiently secure places to keep track.
Just another layer of security confusion that I didn't need, but a black-hat hacker is always happy to see another layer of security. The longer the chain, the more likely there's a weak link
Burning Rash and Watery Eyes (Score:2)
I seem to have this burning rash on my rear and watery eyes after upgrading to 1803. Is this normal?
Seems OK, VeraCrypt speedbump, though. (Score:3)
I upgraded my desktop, and I don't see any issues. I haven't tried any of the "new features"; they didn't seem compelling to me.
My laptop, though... The hard drive is encrypted with VeraCrypt, and the usual update process fails, of course.
The canonical solution is to un-encrypt your drive, do the update, then re-encrypt it. Since encrypt the whole drive takes about 12 hours, I'm not doing that.
However, I found this nifty little page:
https://github.com/th-wilde/ve... [github.com]
I created an install directory from the Microsoft page, copied this into it and ran it. It patches the Windows files with the Veracrypt drivers. Then run setup.exe in an administrator cmd shell, and there you go.
I hope... It's well into the process now, "Working on updates 12% Don't turn off your PC. This will take a while. Your PC will restart several times".
Normal major update, in other words.
If it fails, I'll post the tale of woe here, but it looks like it's going OK. I've seen several postings on GitHub that it works with 1803.
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Another interesting comment I wish that I could reward with a mod point (at least). Gives me some pause about one of the pending machines... (That and my network constraints.)
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It worked. My laptop is now on 1803, still VeraCrypted, and I didn't have to do the two day decrypt/upgrade/encrypt slog.
Kudos to th-wilde on GitHub.
No, because I force disabled Windows Update (Score:2)
I run Windows 10, and my method is that I format my computer annually, install all of the updates available up until that point, and then kill all the update processes with fire. A combination of file and folder permissions, deletion of executable and DLL files...whatever it takes to ensure my computer literally cannot run Windows Update.
Let's address some of the counterarguments with this system:
"but Voyager, aren't you missing out on the latest features?"
No. See, Windows is still my OS because it does pre
What sort of host am I? (Score:2)
Not sure if I have any such responsibility as the source of the original story, but I have read most of the comments (that were visible with my settings), and found many of them interesting and thought-provoking, though not as informative as I had hoped. The first comments did scare me a bit since it was certainly not my attention to trigger another OS war, but those branches faded out quietly and quickly enough. I do wish I'd had some mod points for some of the better comments, but all I can actually do is
That is an understatement (Score:1)
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That was me.
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Can't you set up a local account and choose not to log in?
Absolutely. It even offers that option during the initial install, and you can flip to a local account anytime you want. Of course if you use anything that's tied to the email address like onedrive, you won't be able to access it directly.
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