Post by Noel on Oct 16, 2015 11:14:27 GMT -6
What do we know about Microsoft and Windows, as givens (and I do welcome discussion):
- Microsoft isn't going in the right direction with their cloud-first, mobile-first, mediocrity-everywhere OS.
- Microsoft has turned evil and predatory, in an attempt to herd more folks into their grasp.
- Microsoft has instructed its people to put the least possible documentation into Windows Updates.
- Windows Updates have been showing up that at best seek to drop-load Windows 10's new philosophies into Windows 8 and older.
- At worst they seek to ruin the usability of older systems. Note that performance has been steadily declining.
- GWX rises from the dead more times than a nasty zombie.
- Microsoft is going to be making only cumulative updates moving forward.
We used to get value from Windows Updates (though frankly mostly it was a matter of us accepting poor software because Windows Update offered the promise of fixing it), but now this is a corporation that's lost, and unable to engineer new value, so I think it makes sense for us to discuss a viable strategy for continuing to run our older operating systems for a while moving forward. Realistically, most aren't going to be able to just swap to Linux or OS X in a heartbeat. We'll be keeping the systems we have now. Mine's running as stably as it ever has.
We've got a fair number of bright technical folks here... Most of us are not switching to Windows 10 for the foreseeable future. No must-have features are looming.
So...
Let's talk about what to do with regard to Windows Updates on our older systems.
As a small business owner, I'm running Windows 8.1 x64 Pro with MCE on my main workstation, and I have a secondary system that serves files running Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, along with a bevy of test systems in VMware virtual machines.
I have a very tight firewall setup that doesn't let things out that I don't want out. It also serves as a good monitor for seeing whether the system is trying to communicate in ways it shouldn't be.
I've already swept through and thrown most all privacy/security settings to their most private positions.
I've hidden a number of Windows Updates already. We can talk about which ones I've chosen if you'd like.
I've experimented with disabling the Windows Update service to see what goes wrong, if anything.
My question: Do you want to talk about this? We can go further, to the ultimate details if you'd like.
-Noel