Real Life

by Bryan

12 comments

1 Kryten42 { 10.23.16 at 2:16 am }

“It has been a PITA lately.” — Yes, yes it has!

One good thing that I did this weekend, was finally updating my W10. The new LTSB update was release Oct. 1, but given i don’t trust M$ a nano-meter, I waited a few weeks for others to *test* it first! Amazingly, it is actually an improvement! Some annoyances I had have vanished (though the iSCSI initiator is still a big FAIL)!

This is an announcement of the update (and why I prefer the Enterprise LTSB over all other W10 editions) from a tech blog I visit:

“Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB version 1507 build 10240 was released in mid-2015. It missed most of the updates, including the November update and the recent Anniversary Update, except security updates. The new version of LTSB (based on version 1607) will be released on October 1st. This was announced on the Micro$oft TechNet blog. Support of LTSB 2016 will end in 2026. It should be noted that an update to previous editions of Windows 10 LTSB will feature new content. Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB is the most “lightweight” Windows 10 OS revision: it includes no Windows shop, no Cortana, no Edge, and no other “universal” applications. It has the ability to disable sensors and reporting functions. At the same time, it contains the classic calculator and photo viewer, not found in other editions of Windows 10. LTSB can only be purchased with a VLA (volume license agreement) or an MSDN subscription. However, Micro$oft does allow you to download a fully functional free 90-day trial.”

($ added!) 😉 😀

Apart from that… Health sux, exchange rate & lack of money sux, internet sux, Government sux, weather sux… Yeah, pretty much everything else SUX!

2 Kryten42 { 10.23.16 at 4:37 am }

Funny! I just checked my email (haven’t for a few days). and got one about the new W10 Insider preview 14951. It’s mainly targeting enhancements for Tablet users 9so may be useful for my DELL Venue) & laptops. but there was this:

Windows Subsystem for Linux: Today we are happy to announce two large updates to WSL!

Official Ubuntu 16.04 support. Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial) is installed for all new Bash on Ubuntu on Windows instances starting in build 14951. This replaces Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty). Existing user instances will not be upgraded automatically. Users on the Windows Insider program can upgrade manually from 14.04 to 16.04 using the do-release-upgrade command.

Windows / WSL interoperability. Users can now launch Windows binaries directly from a WSL command prompt. This is the number one request from our users on the WSL User Voice page. Some examples include:

$ export PATH=$PATH:/mnt/c/Windows/System32
$ notepad.exe
$ ipconfig.exe | grep IPv4 | cut -d: -f2
$ ls -la | findstr.exe foo.txt
$ cmd.exe /c dir

More information can be found on the WSL Blog and the WSL MSDN page. Other changes and more information can be found on the WSL Release Notes page.

Other improvements and fixes for PC:
We fixed the issue causing PCs that are capable of Connected Standby such as the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 to sometimes bugcheck (bluescreen) while in Connected Standby.

We fixed an issue resulting in Forza Horizon 3, Gears of War (and some 3rd party games) failing to install from the Store with the error code 0x80073cf9 when the system’s app install location was set to drive with native 4k Sectors (or 4k sector sized drive).

We fixed an issue resulting in larger Store games such as ReCore, Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, Killer Instinct and Rise of the Tomb Raider possibly failing to launch.

We fixed an issue where the console window (which hosts Command Prompt, PowerShell, and other command-line utilities) might not snap correctly to the inside edges between two monitors with different DPI scaling.

We fixed an issue where all agenda items in the taskbar’s Clock and Calendar flyout were using the primary calendar’s color, rather than matching their respective calendar’s colors as selected in the Outlook Calendar app.

We fixed issue where the Add PIN button in Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options was sometimes unexpectedly greyed out for domain-joined devices.

We fixed an issue resulting in Groove crashing if you tried to reorder the songs in a very large playlist.

We’ve updated our migration logic to now include custom scan code mappings. That means that going forward from this build, if you’ve used Registry Editor to remap certain keys (for example, Caps Lock key to null), that change will persist across upgrades.

We fixed an issue Insiders may have experienced resulting in Adobe Photoshop Express crashing after clicking on the ‘correct’ button when trying to edit a cropped image.

We fixed an issue resulting in .csv or .xlsx files downloaded from Microsoft Edge sometimes unexpectedly appearing to be locked for editing by “another user” when SmartScreen was enabled.

We fixed an issue where enabling the RemoteFX adaptor for a Virtual Machine would result in it failing to power on with the error ‘Unspecified error’ (0x80004005).

3 hipparchia { 10.23.16 at 7:00 pm }

The cats won’t like it, and I sure as hell won’t like it.

I have a mobile blanket that follows me through the house, no matter what room I’m in. except for a few extra claw marks (all accidental), I’ve had it pretty good (so far). 🙂

I just got a reasonable utility bill with minimal air conditioner costs, and now I’ going to have heating costs.

I’ve been complaining about this the past 2 or 3 years. fall and spring are minimal here anyway, but now we get about 2 days of each.

last couple of Decembers, the neighbors on both sides of me have had alternating days of running their a/c and their heat. I have (so far) successfully resisted the a/c in December……

4 Bryan { 10.23.16 at 8:39 pm }

Of course the best and most minimal version is the most expensive, we can’t give the hoi-polloi a useful system without all the window dressing and resource wasting crap.

Cheer up, M8. Your days are getting longer and warmer. You should have an election, or at least a political blow up at any time, Trumbull has been having almost as difficult a time as Drumpf lately.

Hipparchia, I turn on one or the other and leave it on, moderation with clothing changes to weather the the changes in temps.It looks like we’ll be back to fall in a day or two.

5 Kryten42 { 10.23.16 at 11:10 pm }

Actually, the license price isn’t that bad. 🙂 The licenses (2) I got were: “Windows 10 Enterprise 2015 LTSB – Upgrade license – 1 license – MOLP: Open Business – level C – Single Language” for around US$215 each. Actually cheaper than a W10 Pro license. 🙂 I had W7 Enterprise licenses, so I was able to just get the Upgrade licenses. I think the full W10 LTSB MOLP license was around US$270. I shopped around, & prices varied wildly!

We can only hope m8. *shrug*

Good luck with everything there. 🙂

6 Kryten42 { 10.24.16 at 12:32 am }

I thought I should clarify why I went to the trouble (and it was a lot) of going for Enterprise LTSB. 🙂

M$ essentially have 3 licensing models:
CB – Current Branch: All updates are immediate
CBB – Current Branch for Business: Non critical updates (all except security & system bug fixes) can be deferred up to 8 Months
LTSB – Long Term Service Branch: Non critical updates (all except security & system bug fixes) can be deferred up to 10 Years. Windows Updater can be disabled.

Note that in the last two options, when you do a major update (such as the October 1 updates each year, the *timer* is essentially reset. So for me going from W10 2015 LTSB to W10 2016, instead of 9 year deferral, I get 10 again.

M$ have this mindset that they REALLY, REALLY need to know what everyone is doing! So much so that they have created some insanely torturous legal reasoning that when you turn off some Telemetry item (and you can do this in Pro, and to a lesser degree in Home, editions via torturous routes), that “NO” actually means “You were just kidding! So I’ll turn that back on.” In LTSB, no means “NO!”

There was a good, lengthy, blog/comments post that nailed it for me, regarding the non-LTSB versions:

This I don’t get. What isn’t Microsoft saying about data collection that others are?

They’re not saying much, that’s my problem with it, other than nondescriptive statements and “we cannot turn it off” (which is utter BS). My issue is that despite turning off every communicative option (using the sliders and settings they provide), the OS still communicates and that’s a deal breaker. It shouldn’t do anything. I want a desktop OS, not a smart phone. I have a smart phone to use as a smart phone; I don’t want my desktop functioning as a smart phone or doing things my smart phone does. I want a desktop OS to be a desktop OS and run apps and games and that’s it. The only communication between my OS and its creator should be when I ask if there’s any updates available. I consider Steve Gibson to be a bit of a blowhard but in this regard he’s absolutely right; a desktop OS should be a desktop OS, not a catch-all solution that does everything even when you don’t want it to and communicates repeatedly for no reason at an idle desktop with no user interaction.

The issue is, the bloody thing communicates frequently. They say nothing about it other than “it’s necessary”. Sorry, I don’t buy that. Crash reports in Win 7 and prior did not automatically communicate every so often sitting at the desktop idle; they communicated when a crash took place and I allowed it to send a crash report. (Which I never did, but that’s beside the point.) The OS talks too much, period. Even when I turn off all the sliders and opt out of everything and then go as far as using GP to disable things and using CMD or PS to remove things or disable things AND run an app after the fact (O&O ShutUp 10) to further make the damn thing shut up…it still communicates! That is utter nonsense! No means no! What is this, MS – some weak law defense that no doesn’t really mean no all the time or something?

(RE: Steve Gibson… I agree!) 😉
But even in LTSB, M$ tried to be cute & sneaky (of course!)

Open up the Group Policy Editor by launching gpedit.msc as an administrator. Go through Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Data Collection and Preview Builds. Double click Telemetry, hit Disabled, then apply. NOTE: This only truly works in the Enterprise edition, but the final step provides a decent enough workaround for Pro users.

It’s counter intuitive, but this setting in gpedit does NOT do what you think it does. By setting this key to “Disabled” you allow each user account to make their own setting, and they can ONLY choose a level between 1 (Basic) and 3 (Full).

In order to get the level we want (0 – Off), you need to set this key to “Enabled” and then in the drop-down box that appears on the left of the screen, set the integer value to 0. Counter-intuitive? Yes! Setting the key to “Enabled” removes the choice from individual user accounts, and then setting the level to “0” disables Telemetry system-wide.

NOTE: Setting this to “0” is ONLY available as an option in W10 Enterprise editions!
GP is “Group Policies”, gpedit is the Group Policies Editor.
According to the official M$ blurb:

The telemetry data is categorized into four levels:

0 – Security. Information that’s required to help keep Windows, Windows Server, and System Center secure, including data about the Connected User Experience and Telemetry component settings, the Malicious Software Removal Tool, and Windows Defender. The Security level is limited to Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education, Windows 10 Mobile Enterprise, Windows 10 IoT Core (IoT Core), and Windows Server 2016.

1 – Basic. Basic device info, including: quality-related data, app compatibility, app usage data, and data from the Security level.

2 – Enhanced. Additional insights, including: how Windows, Windows Server, System Center, and apps are used, how they perform, advanced reliability data, and data from both the Basic and the Security levels.

3 – Full. All data necessary to identify and help to fix problems, plus data from the Security, Basic, and Enhanced levels.

The levels are cumulative and are illustrated in the following diagram. Also, these levels apply to all editions of Windows Server 2016.

Of course, once M$ saw that people had figured this out, they changed it!

Despite all the announcements about MS giving enterprise users the option to switch off telemetry completely on new 10586 build (although it doesn’t recommend it), a tiny thing has changed, and not for the better.

The core setting is well known: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Data Collection and Preview Builds > Allow Telemetry.

Prior to 10586 (ie. 10240):
0. Off [Enterprise Only]
1- Basic
2. Enhanced
3. Full

A value of “0” indicates that no telemetry data from OS components is sent to Microsoft. Setting a value of “0” is applicable to Enterprise and Server editions only. Setting a value of “0” for all other W10 editions is equivalent to choosing a value of “1”.

From 10586:
0. Security
1. Basic
2. Enhanced
3. Full

A value of “0” will send minimal data to MS. This data includes Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) & Windows Defender data, if enabled, and telemetry client settings. This level is available only on Windows 10 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education, and IoT Core. All other editions will have this set to “1” whatever you choose.

From zero data to minimal data: well, not quite a step ahead in privacy policy.

Note that the above two explanations requires a LOT of reading between the lines! (Italics mine. These *features* can be disabled elsewhere!)

I liked this comment also:

It still boggles me how much people are willing to do and how many hoops they’re willing to jump through (some are flaming, obviously) just to run Windows 10 when it brings nothing truly unique or consequential to the operating system market – this is just my opinion, just like the same opinions that everyone else has. I just can’t comprehend why people bother with it: I’ve seen a few folks point out certain aspects of Windows 10 they consider to be useful but of course those aspects have probably been in play for many years now in various forms by various third party software developers for Windows itself – Microsoft just took note of a lot of them and added the same capabilities to Windows 8/8.1 and now 10 as they felt necessary based on consumer input. Aside from DirectX 12 (WHERE ARE THE GAMES?!?!?!) there’s hardly anything in Windows 10 that Windows 7 isn’t fully capable of providing to end users and even most corporate situations but it’s a moot point now.

Make no mistake: Windows 8, 8.1, and 10 were and still are the largest beta software testing projects ever undertaken and Windows 10 itself will perpetually be a beta OS as far as I’m concerned because that’s Microsoft’s stated purpose: no more major OS releases, Windows 10 is it, it’s rolling updates and patches from July 2015 onward and I find that to be haphazard at best and extraordinarily short sighted and problematic on the worst end.

But, people will do what people will do I suppose. I’d quote something George Carlin said about people long ago but it would fall on too many deaf ears.

Note: The above thread is from mid 2015, for context.

And there is a lot like that. 🙂 And anyone who truly knows M$, knew there would be! They are truly the modern equivalent of the old “Snake oil salesman”!

I hope this helps… ? 😉

7 Kryten42 { 10.24.16 at 2:08 am }

Oh! M$ have just published (on Technet) a fairly detailed description of the different options for W10 Enterprise/2016 Server editions if anyone is interested:

Manage connections from Windows operating system components to M$ services

The last item: “26. Windows Update” – how to disable updates (in Enterprise only), is the one most people want to know about (and has the steps I posted a comment about here earlier this year). 🙂

8 Bryan { 10.24.16 at 10:26 pm }

They are gathering data and locking people into one variant, so they are reducing their footprint as software providers and shifting into a marketing company selling data not apps.

They have a captive audience of millions to feed them data on buying habits and preferences which they can sell to retailers and marketing firms. I had PR, Advertising, and marketing firms as clients in SoCal and they all used data that they paid big money for, even though they had to pay me to put it into a form that would be useful.

We know that they aren’t gathering the information to provide a better product. Every time they introduce a new version of ‘Clippy’ it is obvious they don’t care what users tell them. I think they have run out of ideas for Windows are are looking for something else to sell.

9 Badtux { 10.26.16 at 10:33 am }

I am currently in the process of rolling my own firewall using an Intel NUC and an extra USB NIC just so I can get a finer-grained look at what kind of chattiness Windows 10 is up to… I expect to be annoyed once I have all my tools running on this thing. (As for why the NUC, it was the only thing I could find that had the horsepower to do the job in a reasonable footprint for a firewall appliance).

I understand why Microsoft does the rolling update thing where you can’t turn off updates. Millions of Windows systems worldwide are used in DDOS attacks every day. Their hope is that by making it impossible to turn off updates, Homo Boobus will have a security-patched system at all times rather than an unpatched vector for taking down the Internet. Thus far it seems to be working, the DDOS types are now moving on to unpatched Linux systems — specifically, the OS inside network-attached video cameras — for their DDOS attacks. Of course, the proper response would be for Internet providers to cooperate with each other to disable the network connections of those doing DDOS attacks until the networks can be proven secure, but that isn’t happening, because the final mile providers don’t care, because they don’t have to.

10 Bryan { 10.26.16 at 9:50 pm }

They can’t use Win 10 boxes because they have to wait too long for anything to happen. /snark [Average boot time 1 minute 45 seconds] IoT is such a soft target, why go anywhere else?

There is a hell of a lot of activity going on after the music is played, and a lot of ‘Net activity with no obvious purpose as neither a browser or mail program have been opened. WTF, inquiring minds want to know…

11 Badtux { 10.27.16 at 12:34 am }

I am going to start blocking network connections and see what happens. That’s why I’m designing a custom firewall with that NUC. I’ll first start with clamping things wayyyyy down, only allowing proxied HTTP / HTTPS connections and connections to imap and smtps. Then I’ll start looking at the HTTP connections, because I know that Microsoft does a lot of RESTful stuff with XML/SOAP.

12 Bryan { 10.27.16 at 8:26 pm }

There is a lot of Net activity, and I had to go with the Windows Firewall for 10, because my regular firewall was having a fit over things. The Windows Firewall is doing more complaining than it did when I used it on XP and Win 7, but I can get things done.