I have Windows 8.1 and like it - Microsoft keeps prompting me to upgrade, what if I don't?

I wasn't going to upgrade to windows 10 due to snooping issues, but I recently got a new laptop with skylake architecture so I basically had to.If you do upgrade do it with a fresh install.Disable siri,location services,your microphone,webcam and don't sign up with a microsoft account or use its cloud storage.Other than that windows 10 is a pretty good OS.Very fast and much better than 8.1.

I must say this W10 update being practically forced upon us is very disappointing. It's almost as if Microsoft has decided what is best for us, whether we like it or not. Personally I have W10 on my laptop and I like it...HOWEVER I cannot upgrate to W10 on my workstation because my $17,000 Solidworks + Simulation Professional package is not supported by W10. Is Microsoft truly ignorant enough to believe that W10 will work for EVERYONE? I'm sorry I'm not going to pay another $17k to update my business PC to your free W10. STOP SPAMMING ME with a W10 update splash screen on every start up. I've already hid the update, yet I still have the W10 icon in my tray and a ridiculous advertisment upon startup that literally gives no option to refuse the update...only "install now" or "install later". WTF MS!?

Upgraded all 3 desktops here at home.

All have run better than they ever have before (all were Win 7 before).

originally posted by: Battlefresh
I must say this W10 update being practically forced upon us is very disappointing. It's almost as if Microsoft has decided what is best for us, whether we like it or not. Personally I have W10 on my laptop and I like it...HOWEVER I cannot upgrate to W10 on my workstation because my $17,000 Solidworks + Simulation Professional package is not supported by W10. Is Microsoft truly ignorant enough to believe that W10 will work for EVERYONE? I'm sorry I'm not going to pay another $17k to update my business PC to your free W10. STOP SPAMMING ME with a W10 update splash screen on every start up. I've already hid the update, yet I still have the W10 icon in my tray and a ridiculous advertisment upon startup that literally gives no option to refuse the update...only "install now" or "install later". WTF MS!?

It still comes with compatibility mode.

originally posted by: Battlefresh
I must say this W10 update being practically forced upon us is very disappointing. It's almost as if Microsoft has decided what is best for us, whether we like it or not. Personally I have W10 on my laptop and I like it...HOWEVER I cannot upgrate to W10 on my workstation because my $17,000 Solidworks + Simulation Professional package is not supported by W10. Is Microsoft truly ignorant enough to believe that W10 will work for EVERYONE? I'm sorry I'm not going to pay another $17k to update my business PC to your free W10. STOP SPAMMING ME with a W10 update splash screen on every start up. I've already hid the update, yet I still have the W10 icon in my tray and a ridiculous advertisment upon startup that literally gives no option to refuse the update...only "install now" or "install later". WTF MS!?

You have to uninstall the update first and then hide it. If you just hide an already installed it does nothing.

I wouldn't blame Microsoft for Dassault Systems gouging its customers and forcing paid point upgrades and service packs.

Don't upgrade to Windows 10. Every new windows uses more resources esp RAM. Windows 8 works 100% well for everything including games. They have to discontinue Vista and Windows 7 first before 8. I say Vista should go. Its windows 7 an more painful to use.

The time when Microsoft loses money is when they stop supporting Windows 8. Windows 8 is current using Microsoft store. If they shut that down and force everyone to upgrade then they are just screwing themselves over.

originally posted by: LostThePlot
I wasn't going to upgrade to windows 10 due to snooping issues, but I recently got a new laptop with skylake architecture so I basically had to.If you do upgrade do it with a fresh install.Disable siri,location services,your microphone,webcam and don't sign up with a microsoft account or use its cloud storage.Other than that windows 10 is a pretty good OS.Very fast and much better than 8.1.

M$ lost Chinese and German markets back in 2004 because of 'snooping' issues. They won't do it again.

The telemetry they gather does not identify the user, the mac address or the IP.

But, if you have a pirate copy, which could potentially be a 'non-RTM' version and therefore contain "Windows Insiders" telemetry code, then it's a good idea to turn off telemetry. Though I don't know why you'd bother installing a pirate copy of something offered for free.

originally posted by: chr0naut

originally posted by: LostThePlot
I wasn't going to upgrade to windows 10 due to snooping issues, but I recently got a new laptop with skylake architecture so I basically had to.If you do upgrade do it with a fresh install.Disable siri,location services,your microphone,webcam and don't sign up with a microsoft account or use its cloud storage.Other than that windows 10 is a pretty good OS.Very fast and much better than 8.1.

M$ lost Chinese and German markets back in 2004 because of 'snooping' issues. They won't do it again.

The telemetry they gather does not identify the user, the mac address or the IP.

But, if you have a pirate copy, which could potentially be a 'non-RTM' version and therefore contain "Windows Insiders" telemetry code, then it's a good idea to turn off telemetry. Though I don't know why you'd bother installing a pirate copy of something offered for free.

Watch this first, then tell me what you think.

originally posted by: LostThePlot
I wasn't going to upgrade to windows 10 due to snooping issues, but I recently got a new laptop with skylake architecture so I basically had to.If you do upgrade do it with a fresh install.Disable siri,location services,your microphone,webcam and don't sign up with a microsoft account or use its cloud storage.Other than that windows 10 is a pretty good OS.Very fast and much better than 8.1.

There is a vast supply of used laptops out there using older versions of Windows. The most likely things to go wrong with a laptop are the hard drive, the battery, the charger or the CPU fan. As long as it was a fairly popular model, none of these should cost much to fix.

And with many laptops, you might be able to get linux installed on it. Even if you can't do it yourself if you can find a local geek who does odd jobs on Craigslist or something you can go that way. On second though, I don't know about that. LOL

originally posted by: LostThePlot

originally posted by: chr0naut

originally posted by: LostThePlot
I wasn't going to upgrade to windows 10 due to snooping issues, but I recently got a new laptop with skylake architecture so I basically had to.If you do upgrade do it with a fresh install.Disable siri,location services,your microphone,webcam and don't sign up with a microsoft account or use its cloud storage.Other than that windows 10 is a pretty good OS.Very fast and much better than 8.1.

M$ lost Chinese and German markets back in 2004 because of 'snooping' issues. They won't do it again.

The telemetry they gather does not identify the user, the mac address or the IP.

But, if you have a pirate copy, which could potentially be a 'non-RTM' version and therefore contain "Windows Insiders" telemetry code, then it's a good idea to turn off telemetry. Though I don't know why you'd bother installing a pirate copy of something offered for free.

Watch this first, then tell me what you think.

I think that the video is dated August 21, 2015 and Windows 10 general release was July 29, 2015, two months after the video was posted.

It then becomes obvious that Katherine Albrecht CANNOT be talking about the release version of Windows 10.

The "Insiders Preview" did include 'over the top' privacy defying telemetry and this was noted in the conditions of use of the pre-release. It has been removed from the released versions.

Yes, Cortana uses the microphone, I can't see how a voice activated search couldn't. This doesn't imply that it is sending audio anywhere. It is merely locally active on the machine waiting for the "Hello Cortana" signal. Once it recieves that signal, it does send audio to the search engine (which is partially in the cloud, exactly like the Chrome browser - on all platforms, Siri - on iOS/OSX and Assistant - on Android, do).

The subtlety of the distinction between locally monitoring for sound and sending that sound somewhere, still seems to elude some.

Microsoft is emphatic that its telemetry does not cause privacy issues. If they were found to have actually lied (and they would at some stage be found out if they did it), the repercussions would be significant and financially crippling.

a reply to: LostThePlot

Only 2 minutes and 20 seconds into it she spouts bull# about why it´s named 10 and not 9
"because they want to get far away from 8"
utter bull#, it´s because everyone was determining OS versions by checking the numbers, even MS itself and if they would bring out "windows 9", it would break most older OS detection functions. At least that´s what was told to me and it makes sense because I also used this method.


Late Edit (but before someone posted after me)
I heard into that video. I have to say, I´m not a big fan of Win10. But she´s lyiny or at least does not know what she´s saying.
When I heard her complaining that because she has to give a "secret answer" they will know the birthday of her dad. WTF?
I guess she never set up any email account in her life.

originally posted by: AlienView
Every day they flash a pop-up saying I should upgrade. Could thy discontinue support for 8.1? Why are they trying to force this upgrade?
And they already told me that if I go to Windows 10, I have a Bluetooth program will not work and I should contact the manufacturer - Could that be a serious problem?

-Thanks for your response

I reckon all these upgrade messages are intended to get us all to upgrade to win 10 so they have front door access to everything you have, including every website you ever visited and what you downloaded.

Wasn't it one of Hitlers offsiders who said something to the effect that if you keep repeating the same message often enough eventually people will comply with it.

Is this same approach not one the foundation stones of marketing?

originally posted by: BrianFlanders

originally posted by: LostThePlot
I wasn't going to upgrade to windows 10 due to snooping issues, but I recently got a new laptop with skylake architecture so I basically had to.If you do upgrade do it with a fresh install.Disable siri,location services,your microphone,webcam and don't sign up with a microsoft account or use its cloud storage.Other than that windows 10 is a pretty good OS.Very fast and much better than 8.1.

There is a vast supply of used laptops out there using older versions of Windows. The most likely things to go wrong with a laptop are the hard drive, the battery, the charger or the CPU fan. As long as it was a fairly popular model, none of these should cost much to fix.

And with many laptops, you might be able to get linux installed on it. Even if you can't do it yourself if you can find a local geek who does odd jobs on Craigslist or something you can go that way. On second though, I don't know about that. LOL

I build and repair computers for a living.I never buy used as I know a lot more can go wrong with device than what you mentioned above.I configured my own laptop and components.It uses the i7 6700hq with Skylake architecture, which isn't compatible with Windows 7.I have Ubuntu installed on a separate partition.

originally posted by: chr0naut

originally posted by: LostThePlot

originally posted by: chr0naut

originally posted by: LostThePlot
I wasn't going to upgrade to windows 10 due to snooping issues, but I recently got a new laptop with skylake architecture so I basically had to.If you do upgrade do it with a fresh install.Disable siri,location services,your microphone,webcam and don't sign up with a microsoft account or use its cloud storage.Other than that windows 10 is a pretty good OS.Very fast and much better than 8.1.

M$ lost Chinese and German markets back in 2004 because of 'snooping' issues. They won't do it again.

The telemetry they gather does not identify the user, the mac address or the IP.

But, if you have a pirate copy, which could potentially be a 'non-RTM' version and therefore contain "Windows Insiders" telemetry code, then it's a good idea to turn off telemetry. Though I don't know why you'd bother installing a pirate copy of something offered for free.

Watch this first, then tell me what you think.

I think that the video is dated August 21, 2015 and Windows 10 general release was July 29, 2015, two months after the video was posted.

It then becomes obvious that Katherine Albrecht CANNOT be talking about the release version of Windows 10.

The "Insiders Preview" did include 'over the top' privacy defying telemetry and this was noted in the conditions of use of the pre-release. It has been removed from the released versions.

Yes, Cortana uses the microphone, I can't see how a voice activated search couldn't. This doesn't imply that it is sending audio anywhere. It is merely locally active on the machine waiting for the "Hello Cortana" signal. Once it recieves that signal, it does send audio to the search engine (which is partially in the cloud, exactly like the Chrome browser - on all platforms, Siri - on iOS/OSX and Assistant - on Android, do).

The subtlety of the distinction between locally monitoring for sound and sending that sound somewhere, still seems to elude some.

Microsoft is emphatic that its telemetry does not cause privacy issues. If they were found to have actually lied (and they would at some stage be found out if they did it), the repercussions would be significant and financially crippling.

Please don't condescend when it comes to digital communications and data storage.I've been doing this stuff most of my adult life.
You might want to do a bit more research, because you are way off.They wouldn't be caught lying as it's all in the small print.Samsung had to issue a statement with regard to it's smart TV's sending audio to an undisclosed 3rd party.
I find it quite amusing that some still trust Microsoft and Apple with their data after the Snowden leaks.
Watch this video.Your point on Cortana and privacy is proven wrong within the first 5 minutes.

originally posted by: schuyler

originally posted by: Mianeye
a reply to: AlienView

I changed to win 10 a year ago, and it's been almost flawless for my use.

Good for you. Glad you like it. I have one machine on 10. I prefer Windows 7 myself. Every Windows "upgrade" takes away more control from the user and puts it into Microsoft's hands. I realize that eventually I will be forced in to the latest and greatest from Microsoft, but I am determined to avoid it for as long as possible.

Could not agree more. I keep about a dozen friends and families computers "tuned up" that run windows 7. Like you mentioned, each version of windows takes more and more control away from the user, pushing users into the "walled garden" ecosystems found on cell phones and the like. I have mentioned to these people that if they "upgrade" to anything past 7 I wont be able to help them anymore.

If I am going to teach myself how to use a new OS, it wont be a Microsoft product ever again.

OP, grab the application recommended in this thread and throw these prompts in the garbage where they belong. Microsoft I paid for Windows 7 and I refuse to upgrade to something that is "free". There is no such thing as "free".

originally posted by: LostThePlot

originally posted by: BrianFlanders

originally posted by: LostThePlot
I wasn't going to upgrade to windows 10 due to snooping issues, but I recently got a new laptop with skylake architecture so I basically had to.If you do upgrade do it with a fresh install.Disable siri,location services,your microphone,webcam and don't sign up with a microsoft account or use its cloud storage.Other than that windows 10 is a pretty good OS.Very fast and much better than 8.1.

There is a vast supply of used laptops out there using older versions of Windows. The most likely things to go wrong with a laptop are the hard drive, the battery, the charger or the CPU fan. As long as it was a fairly popular model, none of these should cost much to fix.

And with many laptops, you might be able to get linux installed on it. Even if you can't do it yourself if you can find a local geek who does odd jobs on Craigslist or something you can go that way. On second though, I don't know about that. LOL

I build and repair computers for a living.I never buy used as I know a lot more can go wrong with device than what you mentioned above.I configured my own laptop and components.It uses the i7 6700hq with Skylake architecture, which isn't compatible with Windows 7.I have Ubuntu installed on a separate partition.

My point was that you don't need a Skylake CPU in order to have a decent laptop. There are still PLENTY of perfectly functional used laptops around that run older versions of Windows. A lot of people upgrade their laptops because they feel that they need the latest and greatest. Not because the old one doesn't work anymore.

There are plenty of older laptops that are more than capable of running the most common stuff people use laptops for. Web browsing, Youtube, basic office software. Some are capable of gaming and video rendering. If the thing has a CPU/GPU that can do it and it has decent cooling, you don't need the latest CPU. I know I could probably go to Amazon right now and buy a used laptop that just needs a battery (and maybe a hard drive) for not much. Would it be a little more hassle than buying brand new? Of course. But it's doable and that's what works for me. I don't care if it's a little harder because my motive is resistance to this agenda MS seems to have.

The older clunkier laptops were meant more to be worked on than the newer ones. They're not FUN to work on. A desktop is a piece of cake to repair compared to a laptop. But it can generally be done, depending on the problem.

Anyway, my point was that a lot of people don't even wait for them to break before they get something new. And besides that, the first thing that usually goes wrong is the battery stops holding a charge. A lot of people will give up on an old laptop right there since the main purpose of a laptop is portability. The whole culture of disposable stuff makes it more likely the average person faced with this simple repair will simply buy a new laptop.

Unfortunately that probably means a lot of perfectly good ones end up in the garbage. Because lazy people who just buy a new computer because the old one needs a battery probably won't bother to sell the old one.

Yes. Obviously, more serious things can go wrong that are all but impossible for the average person to fix in a way that makes any economic sense.

But I was going under the safe assumption that you can find a lot of perfectly functional laptops that are not completely pooched and have simply been retired because they're not brand new. You should obviously know that most people do not really NEED a Skylake CPU. MS can only pull this crap because people keep buying new stuff simply because it's newer.

Here is an example. I'm not a laptop type of person. I never had a use for one until I started thinking about how bad it would suck during an extended power outage to be without a functional computer. Easiest and cheapest way to solve that is simply to buy a cheap, functional laptop and keep the battery topped off.

So I bought a cheap Asus notebook brand new for $200. It runs Windows 8.1 (which wouldn't have been my first choice but the low price was pretty persuasive).

Now of course this is not a powerful laptop. It is merely functional. With a lightweight web browser this thing will do 99.999% of anything I would need it to do in an emergency type situation. It won't render video (Well, it might do it slowly. I never tried). It probably won't play games. Which is fine because I don't like gaming. It plays Youtube videos flawlessly. It plays movies and music. It will do any basic task that most people would want to do. And it will probably last at least 5 years. That's not a long time but that's 5 years that I can give MS the finger and not upgrade to Windows 10. Which is obviously what they're trying to force me to do with all these pushy, aggressive tactics.

Now of course I obviously did not need a brand new laptop for my needs. I did it this way because I'm basically broke and I didn't have money to play around with. I could have bought a used laptop with better specs and made it work if I had a little more money and I was willing to take a bit of risk. I just needed a quick and simple solution with a predictable, set price. A lot of people are buying very expensive brand new laptops on credit. They could afford to take a bit of a risk on an older system but they don't because they're lazy and they just don't want to mess around with it.

I'm saying that anyone who wants to fight MS on this can do it by simply not going along with this BS. MS might be able to sit back and say they're going to try and force you to upgrade your OS by refusing to support new hardware on their old OS but the hardware manufacturers will take a major hit if people stop buying their new stuff because of it. If enough people were fighting this I think it could be effective.

Of course people will probably just go along with it. And after all, MS wouldn't be playing this game this way if they thought otherwise.

Now as far as my main machine is concerned, it's a dual core AMD APU that is already several years old. I plan to either eventually upgrade the APU to a quad core (which is also still considered outdated) or just keep using the same APU indefinitely. It does absolutely everything I need it to do and I built this entire machine for the price of this budget APU, the budget RAM, a decent motherboard, a cheap SSD and a really good PSU. Probably less than $500 for the basic machine. And I have already been using it for years as I was in the process of adding parts. If I knew a place around here that sells used parts I could have done it for a fraction of the price but I'm disabled and can't get out much. It doesn't take much knowhow. I will not upgrade to anything that doesn't allow me to choose an older OS.