# The version of win10 that people actually want...



## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

but that M$ wont sell to individuals: 

www.howtogeek.com/273824/windows-10-without-the-cruft-windows-10-ltsb-explained/


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## The_Colonel (Feb 6, 2017)

I reluctantly upgraded to 8.1 and will not get 10 until this computer is toast and I need to build another one.


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

The_Colonel said:


> I reluctantly upgraded to 8.1 and will not get 10 until this computer is toast and I need to build another one.


We upgraded two laptops that were running Win 8.1 to Windows 10 when it was offered as a free upgrade. Both are running Classic Shell so we see no tiles. We have two other desktops that were bought with Win 10. Win 10 has proven to be *very* stable. I have come to like it a lot. I have one remaining laptop that is 8.1 that I didn't upgrade it since I wanted to get some experience with 10 before I upgraded all of our machines. The upgrade is no longer free so it will remain on 8.1. I realize there is a back door to still be able to get the upgrade for free but I'm not going to use it.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

You can ditch the tiles along with lot of other cruft without using the third party shell though it isnt always intuitive. Takes some serious homework. M$ wants to force the flashing advertising sideshow down your throat. Win10 is actually pretty stable IF you block it from phoning home and updating at will. Once locked down, its probably most stable offering of M$. The constant churning via mandatory marketing updates is what causes instability. 

I've had fun playing with it on the mini netbooks where security isnt big concern, but I wouldnt want it as only OS on my main computer unless it was only option. Windows has its uses, that being to run offline windows only software that is too much of a pain to get working via WINE. But its become a marketing, data collecting gimmick, one you cant trust any which way as truly secure. Too many holes and backdoors. In other words whole system is spyware.


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

HermitJohn said:


> Win10 is actually pretty stable IF you block it from phoning home and updating at will. Once locked down, its probably most stable offering of M$. The constant churning via mandatory marketing updates is what causes instability.


I don't get any automatic updates so I am never surprised with an unwanted or untimely updates. I did this mainly since I am on a satellite connection with a monthly data cap. A big update at the wrong time could blow that cap. I did this by going into the REG and setting my ethernet connection as a metered connection. You can do this on wireless connections from the manage networks setting but not for an ethernet connection.

Here is a link on how to do that:
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/meter-your-ethernet-connection-in-windows-10/


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

My internet is cellular hotspot so I definitely cant allow silly use of my bandwidth "for marketing purposes". I set wifi to metered, but since I have little faith in M$ keeping any promise, I also use a third party firewall to block all phoning home to M$. Course with the infinite number servers M$ has, you can never be totally sure every last packet is blocked. And if I were really really wanting to block everything for sure, would have to run it through a hardware firewall, or at least another computer with a linux firewall. But as long as it isnt using goofy amounts bandwidth, following me around on the netbooks would be kinda boring and pointless. One of them I use most is pretty well dedicated to free books on Kindle app.


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

So we are both on metered connections. That has its challenges huh.

I am able to manage my usage so that I usually get real close but not over my 10GB/mo limit. Believe it or not I am able to run browsing, security system, and home automation within that monthly cap. However, no YouTubing for me except during my free window of midnight to 5am. I see and hear about these new voice activated systems (Amazon Echo/Alexa, Google Home) and can see it would be useful but can't even consider them with my data limitations.

Maybe some day I'll have an alternative but I doubt it. I'm the last place on dead end road that is 6 miles from the nearest high speed connection.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

I frankly get along with 4GB data a month. And no video. Maybe good thing, with unlimited I'd probably be spending too much time on the howto videos on youtube. No doubt if I absolutely had to, suppose I could prune it down to even 1GB. Though that would just be email and bills and such. Wouldnt leave much left over for anything else, not even researching purchases.

Personally I dont see any need at all for connecting appliances and such to internet.. And the Echo type stuff, whatever brand, is just inviting Mata Hari into your home. It made news here when prosecution in murder trial was trying to force Amazon to hand over all Echo info they had stored for that unit in the murder house. Yep, its on all time and recording. Amazon was fighting it since not good publicity that Echo is just a "big brother" spy in the home.


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

When my PC got fried I ordered a replacement chassis with no operating system installed because I had my own licensed Win 8.1 disk pack for use on one PC at a time and here dial up is the only affordable option for my budget and worked with 8.1.

Of course the manufacturer sent a preloaded with Win 10 system even though I specified a blank drive as it was a replacement parts chassis only.

Any time I went online the system could not browse because Win 10 kept going into automatic update mode.

After a few days to see if the Win 10 crap would settle down and browse I finally formatted the drive removing the 10 making the chassis conform to what I ordered , loaded 8.1 from DVD and spent 40 hours loading the critical updates so I could access the net again and load only the updates I need until I am familiarized adequately with Linux to dual load operating systems until support for 8.1 ends in 2023.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Shrek said:


> When my PC got fried I ordered a replacement chassis with no operating system installed because I had my own licensed Win 8.1 disk pack for use on one PC at a time and here dial up is the only affordable option for my budget and worked with 8.1.
> 
> Of course the manufacturer sent a preloaded with Win 10 system even though I specified a blank drive as it was a replacement parts chassis only.
> 
> ...


That has to be a nightmare, win10 with dialup. There probably is a way to trick it into being seen as a "metered connection", just like the other poster got his ethernet connection set as metered. Officially you are only supposed to have that option with wifi.

Oh if you do have to deal with win10 again, here are the three free third party software I've had good luck using: 

http://www.evorim.com/en/free-firewall
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/destroy_windows_10_spying.html
https://sourceforge.net/projects/windows-10-lite/

The Evorim Free Firewall has settings specifically to block win10 updates and telemetry. Alas of the three its only one being actively updated. The other two may or may not be useful on a newer version of win10. They work great on older versions, but havent been updated. M$ has went all out to force feed users the metro apps and mandatory updates. You have to block the updates or win10 will reinstall any of the metro apps you delete during one of its updates.

Oh and free version of CCcleaner is very useful to remove crapware bloat.

I particularly like Puppy Linux and Sparky Linux. I will say it can be interesting on computers with UEFI and no legacy boot option. Most still offer a legacy boot option so you can do things the old way. M$ is pushing to eliminate Legacy option and ability to disable Secure Boot. One of my netbooks had no legacy option, but I could still disable Secure Boot. Lot of tricks to that. Its not like old days where you just set bios to boot from cdrom and ran linux either as live cd or ran the installer.


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

Thanks for the links. Although I have this chassis set back to Windows 8.1 and still learning the differences between bios and UEFI, I figure what steps I am taking now are working successfully as I decide on future options for my connectivity.

The chassis accepted the Windows 8.1 and the manufacturer's support department sent me an email referencing my purchase asking if my PC was functioning correctly a few days after I went back to 8.1.

After reading the email and telephoning customer service to remind them that they had not delivered what I ordered and needed to access the internet, they conceded that I had in fact ordered a no warranty parts chassis to repair my system although the rep sounded surprised that I preferred 8.1 over 10.

Apparently MS wasn't the only one overloading my connection LOL

While loading some of the filter programs I had installed on the fried unit , Ccleaner included, I found the forced win 10 upgrade blocker from 2 years ago still catches win 10 components that turn up during update checks.


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## logbuilder (Jan 31, 2006)

Shrek,

I hope you saved the Win 10 registration key. Should you want to move to Win 10 in the future that would be good to have.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Actually once win10 has been activated on a particular computer, it should always activate automatically if reinstalled. Yep M$ has the ID number of your computer at that point. No registration key necessary. Win10 depends entirely on contact with M$ activation servers, not some internal unlocking key.

Might also mention that unlike previous versions of windows, win10 can be used indefinitely without activation, no warez cracks or anything required. Unactivated install will show a watermark on screen and you wont be able to select your own wallpaper. Oh and I think it wont let you synch with any other computers on your M$ account (if you have an M$ account). Otherwise its fully functional. The watermark and wallpaper are pretty trivial to do a workaround if you so desire. And frankly cant imagine anybody actually wanting an M$ account. They dont make it clear, but you can install win10 just setting up a local account on your computer, you dont have to signup for actual account with M$.

But interestingly if you block win10 from phoning home to its activation servers, the watermark and wallpaper limitations go away without doing anything. Win10 just thinks the servers are temporarily down I guess and gives you full use until it can contact them. My two netbooks came with win10 so they are activated. But first experiment was win10 on my old desktop that had come with XP, only reason I tried was tax software would no longer run on XP. There was no free upgrade for XP computers. But I didnt want win10 phoning home for any reason, so just happened to find when I blocked it, the watermark went away and I could choose my wallpaper. Neat trick I hadnt seen mentioned anywhere on the web.


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