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The thing that keeps going through my head in all of this is what kind of user are most computer owners? Most of them are not interested in “tech” or reading through Woody’s blog reading conversations about settings, registries, command prompts and telemetry and even if they did, they wouldn’t understand much if any of it much less know that they should be looking into this stuff in the first place. Why should they be punished by having their rights unknowingly violated just because they aren’t techies (at all) and just want a PC that works? They don’t have the time or the desire to learn all the ins and outs of Windows and probably have no idea that their rights are being violated or that they need to research some special configuration to prevent it.

It is unfair that anyone has to have some kind of special computer knowledge in order to avoid this stuff from their OS. It’s the same with cars, really; the majority of people just want a car that works and is reliable without having to become a mechanic in order to reprogram the computer so that it doesn’t intercept wifi internet connection from my cell phone or something and send it somewhere against my knowledge, hypothetically speaking. It doesn’t matter that there’s a “certain configuration setting”; the point is that “certain configuration setting” should be the DEFAULT setting.

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Wheel_D, Elly

I figured I’d try to see what I could find for you, Noel. The closest things I could find for that error code was during installation of Illustrator CC (2015) in which the error seems to be related to a permissions issue. Of course, this may not be helpful at all, but if I was in your situation, I would follow all the leads I could in order to troubleshoot it. It’s the third question down from the top.

Also, this thread on the Adobe help forums has error codes 160 and 184 in the title though the whole thread is about 160, but turned out to also be a permissions issue. These are old threads, but error code 184 might be the same across all versions of this program. I’d have some leads to check if I were you. Hope that helps!

 

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Noel Carboni

What a complete and utter mess these patches are. Seriously, does Microsoft just have zero pride for anything they do anymore? Are they even trying? Even their precious cloud service OneDrive is pretty awful based on what I’ve read about it and what people are saying about it. It’s like MS is committing suicide in the public eye for all to see. I just don’t get it. How is Microsoft not embarrassed enough by all this to change their tune? There’s tons of things going wrong with every batch of patches and they just keep churning them out. What’s even more surprising is there are still MS fanboys on here (not many) who still rush to their defense when MS is obviously wrong in what they are doing and how they are doing it.

On top of that, the blocking of updates for those using certain processors is ludicrous and seems to be a breach of their agreement with customers regarding Win7 support. Of course, for some of us, not being able to patch is really more of a feature and most of us have images of our systems that will last indefinitely perhaps over many different machines’ lifespans. People will find a foolproof way around it anyways just as people always do with unpopular changes and apparent breach of contract to products they paid money for.

I just can’t believe that any self-respecting company would be doing this to themselves in such a public way. What is going on at Microsoft? Seriously…

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Elly

But a few Win 10 users will likely say that they won’t mind being personally ID by MS because they have done nothing wrong/illegal online

When people say this, all I hear is someone that doesn’t care about their rights anymore because they feel they don’t need them and therefore no one else should either. Personally, I do a lot of paper shredding before throwing it in the recycle bin especially when it has my address on it, but what the people who use the “nothing to hide” fallacy are saying is it should be okay if someone went into those shredded documents and pieced them back together to get my address and I shouldn’t care because I “have nothing to hide”, right?

There are so many things wrong with the “nothing to hide” argument because everyone has something to hide and it doesn’t necessarily mean someone has done anything wrong. I’m not sure people really understand what privacy is and why it’s important to not let anyone take it away. We already know they hide microphones/cameras in TV’s and cable boxes, so in an era where everything can connect to the internet, what’s next? An out-of-control corporate fascist environment like the one we live in will be able to find something to blackmail or even prosecute people with if desired. I really wish the whole “nothing to hide” argument would just go away because it’s nothing more than a huge, apathetic fallacy. If I asked you to hand me your cell phone so I could go through it, what would your answer be? What, no? You must have something bad you’re hiding in there, huh?

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Elly, samak, Noel Carboni

Just wanted to say excellent work to Brian and anyone else who contributed to these tests. I love learning new stuff about Windows and used these test results to uninstall several updates among other things. Great work.

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MrBrian

Elly wrote:

Wow! My entire family has come together in agreement… the US Senate and Congress and president has sold us out… Family that can’t agree on anything political, not party, not ideology, and argue endlessly… family spread from Alaska to Florida, New York to Hawaii… and they are in 100% agreement on this. Trump really knows how to bring us all together!

I love hearing stuff like this because it makes me think there might still be hope. This is exactly what needs to happen on a larger scale. IMO, political parties and partisanship has done more to divide and destroy this country than anything else by a long shot. These are the kinds of walls that we have to tear down and never rebuild.

This was my experience as well. I used XP up until December of last year and had zero problems with malware or attacks of any kind most of the time and the times I did were totally my fault, but few and far between and in most of those times, I was able to resolve the problem without doing a clean install. I just don’t buy into all this doom and glooming about using outdated OS’s like XP and the only reason I finally moved up to W7 was because I wanted a high powered computer and it was the only other Windows version I was comfortable using. Of course, I had a lot of system services shut off and had protection measures in place otherwise, but no real problems with XP despite using it well beyond it’s support days.

You’re also absolutely right about the end user being the problem most of the time. It’s so easy to install third party software and just quickly click through the install screens in haste and install a bunch of problems along with it. It’s even easy to accidentally get malware or something just browsing through google images if you don’t have some protection measure in place which, though rare, is pretty ridiculous.

Personally, my decision to stay with XP was because it did everything I needed it to do and all the old programs I have gotten so used to using all worked perfectly. Windows 7 was my only option to be sure to keep that going and a couple programs actually run better on 7. My old XP box will probably not be used for XP anymore, but I am real tempted to install Linux Mint Cinnamon on it and start messing around with it. I will one of these days, but for me, it’s not really about sticking with what I know since I’m fairly confident I could learn to use anything. It’s more about sticking with what I know works for me. My strong distrust of Microsoft only guarantees that Windows 7 will be my last Microsoft OS and who knows how long I’ll be using this one. I really love it, though. XP and W7 were/are truly masterpiece OS’s and the best Microsoft has ever made. It’s been all downhill since then.

Reluctantly, I’ve decided to stop patching Windows 7 because, to put it simply, I just don’t trust Microsoft anymore and certainly not with my PC and data. It seems like the risks now outweigh the benefits of patching.. IMO, of course.

Woody, you have a good thing going here. It’s so nice to be able to read through so many messages by experienced people on both sides of this issue. I knew my way around DOS when I was 13 and even ran my own BBS (if anyone remembers those) for awhile, but everything I know about Windows was learned from snooping around under the hood and (cautiously) messing with stuff. It’s very unsettling to me that WU has become this mine field that needs to be tiptoed through to avoid the “bad stuff” and only get the good stuff. I don’t trust Microsoft not to slip things into patches widely considered safe without second thought, even if small piece by small piece, nor does W7 seem to need any patching anyway especially if you have security measures in place. When I ask myself “Is it really worth it?”, I just can’t make myself go along with it at this point. I feel that Microsoft is now the enemy and I shouldn’t take what it offers me anymore. The trust is gone.

Anyway, love the site!

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Noel Carboni, Cousinjack, HiFlyer

fp wrote:

This is now their entire business model and they will do anything to stop anybody from trying to interfere with it because they have little else.

That’s what the military is for.

The only ones who can make this country great again are the ones who have allowed all this to happen in the first place; the apathetic, clueless public. Good luck getting everyone to set aside all their differences and hatreds first because this country couldn’t get much more divided at this point. People are too busy hating each other to do anything about this stuff since we’ve apparently decided that it’s better to find ways to hate each other than it is to find ways to work together, but first you’ll have to convince them that they should be upset at losing freedoms and liberties every day right under their noses. It’s a sad state of affairs for sure. I truly fear for the future because this stuff isn’t going to just stop.

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samak, HiFlyer

fp wrote:

This is my answer to all those who readily accept surveillance as a fait acomplit, who just don’t care about it, who gave up fighting it, etc. These things never have a line at which they stop. Those who submit will pay the price. Freedom requires to fight for it.

Indeed. People like that only care about this stuff when it directly affects them in a negative way and seem to lack a “big picture” outlook on this stuff or, as you suggested, they just don’t care and don’t realize the magnitude of what’s happening right under their noses. They sit back and tolerate having their freedoms taken away one by one and anyone who stands up and says “Hey, wait a minute!” get shouted down with things like “Deal with it!” and get called political names or conspiracy theorists among a host of other things.

You’re absolutely right; this is not something that is going to go away easily and in the end will likely require an event I hope I never see in my lifetime in this country that we already did once a long time ago. Their claws are in too deep to back out now unless they are forced to. Protests won’t do it, angry letters won’t do it and voting won’t do it since it’s a sham anyway. The only thing anyone understands anymore is war and violence. They will not just stop doing this. It will progress and by the time the people you mentioned in your post decide that enough is enough, it will be far, far too late. Heck, it already is apparently. Now the only question is when will everyone wake up and see all this for what it is and take it as seriously as it should have been taken years ago.

I do know one thing; when the people of this country finally decide to rise up against all this together, it won’t be pretty because people are going to be P***** and they’re already armed. Corporate America won’t give up all their power and profits without a fight. What do people think the military is for, anyway? Freedom? Ha! Smedley Darlington Butler knew that was all BS back in the 1930’s and it still is now.

Meh, all this is quite depressing to think about. I try not to really.

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Elly

Almost bought a Vizio recently, but decided on a Samsung instead. It’s no surprise that this stuff is so widespread. If this is the future, then the future is bleak. All this technology that many people can’t live without at this point is going to be our undoing. A 2.2m fine for VIzio is nothing. That fine is basically saying “Well done!” It’s certainly not a penalty.

Most Americans really have no clue of even the half of how much they are spied on. What’s worse is the things used to spy on them are the things many people can’t even go without long enough to go for a five minute walk; their phones. If people ever really wake up about this stuff, it won’t be a pretty sight. However, it’s still far to easy to dismiss such things as “conspiracies” and never give them a second thought. Inventing the term “conspiracy theory” remains one of the CIA’s crowning achievements and is still paying dividends today. It is still used to marginalize and undercut anyone who smells something fishy going on (with ANYTHING) long after the whole Warren Commission thing and people still don’t believe that.

Anyway, a little off topic. I really wish I never would have chose the red pill sometimes.

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SueW

Yes, I noticed that about the “Comments are Closed” thing as well. It appears below the “Submit” button on all threads I’ve looked.

Also on seeing the day a topic was started. While clicking on the topic link will show you, it’s an extra step that could be removed by simply having it with the thread title right there for all to see. There’s plenty of extra space there to find a place for it, ya know? The more information that can be shown to people browsing the forums without any extra steps taken, the more user friendly it is. Anyway, just a thought.

I also miss how it would tell you (on the AskWoody home page) how many comments currently existed on a topic without clicking on anything. It is a matter of convenience is all and it’s now missing. For example, it used to say “No Comments” or it would say “X comments” with X being the number of comments that existed. Clicking on it would then open the comments section to the topic, but this has been replaced with a link that just says “Comment on the AskWoody Lounge”, so it’s less information that what was there before.

Just my 2cents.