Duncan, I managed to avoid this free "upgrade", and have found a utility that can be had for free here that stops Win7 from downloading and running the updates. They want you to change because they want to stop supporting Win7 in terms of security patches etc at some point. (And there may be more nefarious reasons too.)

Hi Duncan,

In the good old days Microsoft earned a very good living by selling software licenses. Not just for operating systems but also a wide range of development tools, Word Processors, Browsers, Spreadsheets, Databases, Games, and Web Servers etc. They also sell an excellent range of services in support of their software and how best it can be used by a business.

Microsoft's traditional income from licenses is drying up due to market changes. They lost the battle for Supercomputers and – much more seriously – that for the absolutely massive mobile market. Android is based on a Linux kernel.

Another way of making money from the web is to accurately target potential sources of income with advertising and other offers. Microsoft are interested in this market.

Accurate targeting is best achieved by tracking the activity of internet users. Their purchase history, contacts, and interests can all be recorded and analysed. There are many ways in which this information can be mined, for example to create and sell lists of potential customers to interested suppliers, or to identify market trends.

There are several examples of Microsoft moving into data collection and analysis. The Bing search engine collects usage data much as does Google. Windows 10 is free to customers but, unlike Windows 7, it "phones home" by default so that Microsoft can collect data about what you do with your computer. Most, but not all, of the "phone home" features can be turned off but the user has to realise first that this needs to be done and then has to wade through various settings to plug the leaks. These features are off by default in Windows 10 Professional but you pay a license fee for that.

Microsoft don't profit from people who stay on Windows 7 and there is new money to be made from Windows 10 and future upgrades.

I'm not bashing Microsoft. I benefit from two machines running Windows 10. I don't suggest that Microsoft are in any way wicked in all this, it is simply that my and Microsoft's best interests are not necessarily the same!

Not everyone is worried by privacy issues. I'm pleased, for example, that this forum carries advertising targeted at me even though I am thereby outed as a Model Engineer! But, after a career in big IT I am very aware of just how much can be deduced from a large data set and also that the deductions can be used for good or bad. The Inland Revenue detecting tax-dodging is good. Criminals selecting vulnerable old people to scam is not.

Cheers,

Dave

Be careful with Microsoft Update. I know we are all too careful (we are aren't we?) to fall for the "automatic updates" that MS offers us but when updating manually you do need to check what they are actually foisting on you.

At one time "important updates" meant things like security fixes. Now it includes things that MS really want you to have. Things like invasive default privacy settings that you have to jump through hoops to turn off. These come built into W10 but MS is trying to foist it on the unsuspecting for W7 upwards. Along with forced automatic updates (then they've really got you!)

It took me (Windows 8.1) a long time to find out how to get rid of the pop-up that keeps wanting to install W10. Now, every update series includes an update that wants to re-install that. I uncheck it and "hide this update" and what do you know? Next update time there's another version to do the same thing.

These days I probably install no more than half the updates that MS is trying to foist on me.

And then people wonder why I, and several other people, advocate Linux.

Peter G. Shaw

Many, many years ago I used to really liked MS Word but it's gradually gone down hill in my opinion. I switched to open office ages ago and it does everything I need of a WP package. I'd still use Word 98 or whatever it was if it was free and compatible with open office though…

I too had the automatic and uninvited upgrade to W10 which annoyed me intensely. I decided to give it a go as I knew that there was a period of about 30 days during which one could revert back to the original operating system. As it seemed to running fine and there were other benefits to W10 I decided to stick with it and have been pleasantly surprised. It run my Microsoft Office suite quite happily and that is the 2000 version and all the other software I had on the computer. The upgrade was smooth and I have not had any problems since upgrading,that said I am now expecting the blue screen of death!

It seems to be faster than W7 and certainly boots up and closes in less time. If the automatic upgrade hadn't happened then I expect I would still be running W7 and resisting any change to upgrade. Overall I am quite happy with W10 now that I have run it and got used to the differences and some of its nuances.

I still have a system that's running XP, and surviving, for some of the 'legacy' software that would not run on W7.

Jimmy b, You can always use, providing you are not a business user, Microsoft Office programs by using their online versions which are free, Word Online, Xcel Online plus several others and another free alternative is Google Docs and this prog has a number of templates available plus it can import and download in many different formats.

Martin W

I tried OpenOffice and LibreOffice when I went self employed. They are great if you never use tables, embedded images and objects or advanced formatting and never get sent documents created by someone else.

Going to Office 365 was like sinking into a warm bath… it's like comparing a 2-axis router to a 4-axis CNC mill. They both work but one does more with less effort.

It opens everything, but occasionally I get ODT or RTF files from contributors who use opensource programs, often easily spotted by the text margins being outside the page and similar issues.

I suppose I'll get flamed now…

:-/

Neil

I had no problems with tables or embedded images on LibreOffice Neil – ONCE I UNDERSTOOD HOW TO USE THEM. Openoffice went something female up when it was taken over by one of the server companies. Prior to that Linux distro's came with one or the other of them according to the things they offered.

True I do moan how things are done on most of them including MS but only because I have used another now long gone that wasn't based on 60's boiler plate word processors.

John

–

I updated our machines to Windows 10 + the installed version of Office. It all works very well and I have to say well done. However. The Windows 10 updates are heavy duty – the biggest was 5GB+ and you have to take them. These GB sized 'updates' look like every other month.

You cannot un-install Internet Explorer. You can disable it, but it still gets the mandatory updates and grabs a 5MB cache from somewhere.

I've already related that my Dad's 'free' broadband is now £10 a month because the W10 updates alone, breach his usage cap twice a quarter.

Another sneaky trick is that the updates try to avoid using the MS servers. So you can get your update from my machine on a P2P basis (not now you can't – switched that off that 'feature' off). On the plus side, if the update has hit my laptop, other machines on the local network don't need to download updates across the broadband connection.

At least MS promise not to read the content of your eMails (well they did last year…).

Steve

Neil & others,

If you look into it, I think you will find that the formats as used by Open & Libre Office are actually the correct formats to use as defined by ISO/IEC as an international standard in ISO/IEC 26300 – Open Document Format for Office Applications. This suggests to me that it is actually Microsoft who are in the wrong, not for the first time as I understand it.

The problem is that because Microsoft have gained a stranglehold in a large number of places such that those people who have not been taught anything different think that Microsoft Office is the be-all and end-all of office applications and hence don't know what to do when faced with an ODT document, say.

The Wikipedia article on Open Documents discusses this further.

Unfortunately, it will take a long, long time until people stop using Microsoft's proprietary formats.

Peter G. Shaw

For those that have not yet had MS force the Win 10 update you may be able to prevent it. You can go to your control panel, in programs and settings, and set all Windows updates to "download only" NOT "download and install" which is the default setting on many computers.

Not saying this is a guarantee that a forced update will not occur, but it is less likely.

Regular full backups to memory sticks are a good idea.

Several types of midrange/ high end CAD programs still do not certify Win 10 to run them, and may not work properly with Win 10. Check regularly with your VAR for status on this if you have such a CAD program. JD

That's the way this one runs Jeff since last year no GWX on the 64bit drive took it off last year.

For some reason switched GWX off on other drive running 32 bit, big mistake cant even play a cd. They had me on that win 10 last October 'admin privileges' ended up doing a clean install and have to do it again.

Neil its because every Win 10 user is a peer to peer sharer unless disabled of course but not that many would know about such under hand dealings.

Just a step closer to Cloud software and pay as you go.
I am not condoning illegal activities but MS are watching and logging everything you do, emails to what piccies you have looked at. Google and Apple major players as well. Do a search plenty of topics out there make your own mind up, didn't think we were in the eastern block.