Win 7 update KB3035583

While you may think MS is desperate, there are many people who are angry because they have not been offered the upgrade yet. I think they just want to make sure that everyone who wants the upgrade, and has a compatible machine, has the opportunity to get it. It would be nice if every machine is eventually at the same configuration so updates install more smoothly. When people are cherry picking the updates that they want and ignoring others, as they have done in the past, it leads to problems when new patches are issued.

Then Microsoft has to accept that people will still be using PCs which can't be upgraded to Win 10 (or even to Win 8) for a long time to come. And we're not going to buy new hardware just to please MS.

People "cherry pick" updates, as you put it, because many of them are useless junk, like driver updates that make our hardware stop working, or fix problems we don't have...

Ron, your topic was regarding Microsoft's "pushing" the upgrade. That is what I addressed.
The upgrade notification can be easily unchecked and hidden at Windows Update. The intent is not to force anyone to purchase new hardware.

As far as the drivers, you do not have to have drivers downloaded from Microsoft. There is a Windows 10 setting for that.

Off topic a bit, but the reference to "cherry picking" got me searching. The term always had the whiff of disapproval to me, at least in the context of basketball or hockey games, where it refers to players abandoning a defensive position to lurk near the opponent's goal in the hopes of getting an errant ball or puck in order to score. Cherry Pickers are often not seen as "team players".

However the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as a verb:
"to select the best or most desirable ".

In this neutral sense, I guess I've been "cherry picking" Windows Updates for many years now, and hiding those that did not seem to apply to my system, or address any issues I had. My practice has always been to only upgrade my operating system when I purchase new hardware. Others will differ. I have not been offered Win7 update KB3035583 recently, probably because I hid it some time back. I suppose that by hiding some of these unneccesary updates I closed some doors regarding further updates. In practice I have not had any problems.

That said, Bb's point is well taken. Be careful which updates you hide.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/10/09/windows-10-worst-features-installed-on-windows-7-and-windows-8-again/

offers some details/information about 4 recent updates:

KB 2952664   KB 2976978  KB 2977759 and KB 3035583

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/10/09/windows-10-worst-features-installed-on-windows-7-and-windows-8-again/ offers some details/information about 4 recent updates: KB 2952664   KB 2976978  KB 2977759 and KB 3035583

By coincidence, I just received an email from my professional liability insurance carrier with rather extensive instructions on how to configure  privacy settings to minimize the chances of Windows 10 sharing confidential personal and client information with either Bing or MS.

It includes advice to
- log into Win 10 the first time using a local Windows account, rather than the recommended MS online account, and remove any MS online account listed under "Other accounts you use”. This necessarily disables Cortana (MS digital assistant).
- turn off the "Speech, inking and typing" (AKA "Getting to know you") on the Privacy Options page. This will disable voice dictation.
- Turn off the "Messaging" (email, SMS, and MMS), enabled by default, to "enable manual control over who has access to the content of your emails and text messages."
- Turn off the "Contacts" and "Calendar" categories, enabled by default, to enable manual control of which  applications have access to these functions.
- Disable your "Location Services" and "Geofencing", to keep Windows and individual applications from tracking your physical location. (The forensics investigators won't like that. But they can still track me with my smartphone, which I need to keep turned on.)
- Switch off the Camera and Microphone automatic settings -you can still retain manual control as needed.
- Consider editing the "Account Info" setting to specify which installed applications have access to your name, picture, and other personal data.
- Edit the "Radios" and "Other Devices" to specify which ones are authorized for connectivity.

Whew! I could continue, but will stop there. These guys are liability legal wonks, of course, who probably wish their clients were not connected to the internet at all. But they are not the popular press trying to generate sensational headlines.

 I can't comment on the practicality of their recommendations as I have not yet tried Win 10. They  seem rather Draconian, like a prescription for crippling a system, but would appreciate any comments from anyone using Win 10. 

Think I've turned off all of those things, except for reverting to a local account on my Win 10 laptop.  I don't miss out on anything.

Turning off "Messaging" doesn't prevent me from accessing my personal Gmail or my business email account hosted by another provider.  So I don't know why those instructions mention email.

That said, you do need to check all those settings from time-to-time, especially after a major Win 10 update. I've found that at least some of those settings revert to their defaults. In other words, some of the monitoring / logging seems to get turned on again.

I don't believe that's due to malware because this system is routinely scanned and "clean" using Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, Windows Defender, and the monthly MS Malware Removal Tool.

All good advice, Joe. These basics are what most of the Consumer Security folks have been advising as soon as Windows 10 is installed.  I keep a list next to me for each installation just so I don't forget anything. I did return to using a MS account on my personal computers so that I could use the Store. Cortana will stay disabled for a while, though, until I have time to investigate whether it meets my needs. Actually all this took less time than configuring settings on my first day of using my Android phone. (Still not crazy about Google's having access to so much - albeit the bare necessities -  but that's another story.)

All these Windows 10 settings may look like a huge task, but think about all the tweaks we've made using our layered security over the years. That was done a little at a time. This is just all at once.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the Home version of 10 has fewer settings than the Pro and Enterprise versions. In other words, you have more control in Pro and Enterprise. To me it would be worth a few dollars more to order a computer with Pro. At the moment I have one ultrabook running Home and one running Pro so that I can help people in forums. I really prefer Pro because of the settings that I can change using Pro's Group Policy Editor.

Thanks Ron and Bb for your thoughts.

Learning a new OS is always daunting, but I'm not likely to switch from Windows with my next system and break a 20 year habit. I'll likely keep my work-related and financial stuff on Windows 7/sp1 in the near future, as I'm more comfortable at present with its privacy settings. And I don't really need voice dictation, cameras and microphones, and synching with "other devices" in my work (apart from a scanner and printer).

I will likely learn Windows 10 on a system reserved for personal use/entertainment, where privacy is not so important. I don't really care if MS knows my surfing habits, which news or ebooks I read, or which movies I view from Netflix. As long as I don't get personalized ads or spam. I 'm not much of a gamer, but if Win 10 doesn't include a version of FreeCell that is as quick as the XP version (which I had to migrate to Win 7, to replace its clunky/slow version), it could be a deal-breaker. :emotion-5:

Even after turning off all the available security/privacy options in Win 10, it still phones home with who-knows-what info, as a number of tech sites have reported.

Win 10 has XP-compatibility mode, so if you can install the XP version of FreeCell, you should be good to go. :emotion-2:

Even after turning off all the available security/privacy options in Win 10, it still phones home with who-knows-what info, as a number of tech sites have reported. 

I also keep work and financial stuff on a Win 7 desktop with no intentions of moving any of that to the Win 10 lappy.

Win 10 has XP-compatibility mode...

That's fascinating... I wonder how they keep THAT secure?!? --- particularly if it includes IE8.

I posted this in this forum a while back:

Even when told not to, Windows 10 just can’t stop talking to Microsoft

Win 10 has XP-compatibility mode...

That only means Win 10 can run old XP (and Vista) -compatible software. I doubt you could install IE8 into Win 10, even in compatibility mode, given how closely IE and the OS are tied together. So that's probably not an issue.

Besides, who would want to use IE8 (or IE9) with Win 10, when IE11, Edge, Firefox etc are all supposed to be so much more secure?

I posted this in this forum a while back: Even when told not to, Windows 10 just can’t stop talking to Microsoft

 I've hidden web search from Start, so I don't use it. I'd suggest others do that too, if they are concerned about using Bing. For the super-paranoid, I would suggest that they use a browser and search engine that are more private.

Ed Bott commented back in August: http://www.zdnet.com/article/no-microsoft-is-not-spying-on-you-with-windows-10/

Microsoft has a response that was updated this month: http://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2015/09/28/privacy-and-windows-10/