Replies

Kee Pass.

Creates as many passwords as you like, as long as you like, one per site, and they stay on your computer. Not in the cloud, where they can be hacked, or the service provider can go belly up. You only need to remember one master password (and never write it down).

Free. Donations encouraged. Often updated. Tons of options. Plug-ins for extended functionality. Classic interface, not kindergarden nonsense with colour tiles and whatnot. Portable and installable versions. The developer told me he had no plans to take the cloud route, thankfully.

Use it also to store all sorts of data you need to have handy and can’t remember : social security numbers, bank account numbers, hardware warranty numbers…

Couldn’t live without it.

Nice example of the method that’s becoming pervasive in all walks of life :

1) Obfuscate,
2) Lie.

If Microsoft actually installs pre-checked items after reboot, while the option to “Download updates but let me choose whether to install them” has been selected, they are downright lying in the face of their users.

When has that become acceptable, not to mention legal ?

“Azerbaijani Manat and Georgian Lari”. It seems everybody is busy doing a parody of themselves these days.

You’d think only stand-up comedians would have the gall to push the envelope that far, but no : it’s business as usual in corporate America.

Woody,

Windows 7 Home Premium + GWX Control Panel here. I have followed your last MS-DEFCON advice, no problem (yet).

However, I have reinstalled recently, therefore I had (and still have) quite a backlog of non-installed optional updates, going back to 2013. Any thoughts ?

A bunch of bits… now that’s an indictment !

Not wanting to sound unduly boastful, but I feel safe from Microsoft’s “innovations”… with my Outlook 2003. Sometimes, older is better.

What I’ve read from an apparently serious source is :

– W 10 will stay free forever, for those who took advantage of the upgrade offer.

– However, W 11 (or whatever it is called then) will be sold on a subscription basis.

(Sorry, no link, just out of memory.)

That would make sense.

1. Force customers out of paid-for versions, by hook or by crook (paid-for once and for all).

2. Get customers used to the software-as-a service model, under the motto we-own-your-PC-but-it’s-for-your-own-good. But, hey, it’s free… you can’t refuse free, can you ? Also, “If you like your old Windows 7, you can keep your Windows 7” (allegedly).

3. Once that stage is reached and users are beaten into submission, pull the rug under their feet and start charging for the next version. By that time, reverting to Windows 7 won’t be a realistic possibility anymore.

In this (extremely long) podcast, Paul Thurrott says it’s not only Microsoft being evil and trying to drag people into Windows 10.

https://www.thurrott.com/podcasts/64039/windows-weekly-449-noob-tubing

It’s also the official recognition of something that has being going on silently for a while : before Windows 10 came around, Windows Updates quietly began to make changes to the operating system, in order for it to stay compatible with new processors.

So although the operation smacks of arm-twisting, there would be a legitimate, technical reason for it.

Paul Thurrott and Mary Jo Foley both say this announcement worries business customers, and may suggest downgrade rights are coming to an end (another irritant for this type of users).

I guess this is one more reason to use an email client and store your mails locally. I’m still on Outlook 2003, which is supposed to be “dangerous” by now, since it’s unsupported by Microsoft and therefore open to exploits and malware (in theory).

However, in a world where Microsoft itself is the malware, standard thinking (which happens to be inspired by none other than Microsoft) might be a tad obsolete.

I relied on Foxit for a long time. Then, it began using agressive and invasive tactics… reminiscent of Microsoft shenanigans. So I switched to PDF X-Change Viewer. Older-fashioned, but more respectful of the customer.

Incidentally, Foxit is Chinese, or at least has strong links with China. I don’t trust this very much.

And now, this :

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/11/24/beware-latest-windows-10-update-may-remove-programs-automatically/

Woody,

You say : “I’m heartened by the fact that Microsoft hasn’t been caught (yet) using its new telemetry “features” in Windows 7 and 8.1 to scrape information and target ads.”

I don’t know. I’m in the process of reinstalling Windows 7 from scratch. And I mean : from scratch. I purged both my system and my data drive with the Clean All command before doing a Custom install.

I was at a very early stage in the process. Almost no application software reinstalled. Absolutely no data restored. I went online with Internet Explorer (not my usual browser) on a media site. Because I had not installed(yet) my usual ad blockers, no-tracking add-ons and so forth, I was overwhelmed with ads I usually never get to see.

Along them, there were two ads so specific that they were evidently targeted to me. One echoed a thorough e-commerce search I had done for a specific type of product, shortly before totally nuking my computer clean. The other was an ad for a specific product, from an absolutely unknown, retailer-specific brand.

I happen to suscribe to the newsletter of that retailer. And I had browsed one of its catalogs, from a link in one of its newsletters, looking up that precise product from that one-in-a-million-brand. But that was before I wiped everything to zero !

Let me tell you : this was a creepy experience. How on earth did they find me ? The only identifier I can think of is my Windows product key, paired with the unique string Microsoft computes from my hardware setup, in order to allow my OEM copy of Windows to activate on this PC alone. And, of course, any Advertising ID if Windows 7 has such a thing.

I’m not familiar with ad-tracking techniques, but I’d be very interested to hear theories about how this is even possible.

Sorry for a basic question, but do I understand correctly that DEFCON is for non-security updates only ? You do recommend to apply security updates as soon as they are offered, don’t you ?

Is it really wise to block telemetry for an individual user of Windows 7 who does not have the resources of an IT department ?

Microsoft says this on a Technet article about adjusting or stopping telemetry in Windows 10 :

“If your organization relies on Windows Update for updates, you shouldn’t use the Security level [lowest]. Because no Windows Update information is gathered at this level, Microsoft can’t tell whether an update successfully installed.”

http://blogs.technet.com/b/netro/archive/2015/09/09/windows-7-windows-8-and-windows-10-telemetrie-updates-diagnostic-tracking.aspx

I have blocked a certain number of telemetry updates on my W7 system. Just a few hours ago, it insisted I should download several security updates… that Control Panel said were already installed.

It also warned me about several “missing” updates which had been published a long time ago, up to 2014…

I understand the urge, with Microsoft, to shoot first and ask questions later, but shouldn’t we just block the infamous KB 3035583, which I understand is the Windows 10, ahem, malware itself ?

Updates need to be working correctly.