# Microsh***e Whinedoze



## AlisonM (Sep 21, 2016)

The Great and all poweful Microsh***e have just hijacked 10Gb of my monthly allowance for a major update. In spite of my settings telling them I have a 'Metered Connection' and not to download till I say so, they did this without asking and I'm in danger of running out before the rollover on the 28th. The politest thing I can think of to call them has 8 letters and begins with a B.


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## Northerner (Sep 21, 2016)

Grrr!!! I knew you couldn't trust them!   The main reason why I didn't take my 'free' upgrade. How can it take 10gb for an update when the o/s itself is about 3-4gb? Bloatware in extremis


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## AlisonM (Sep 21, 2016)

I dunno, but I checked my remaining allowance last night and that's how much has gone AWOL after their updates. Barstewards!


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## mikeyB (Sep 21, 2016)

Doesn't make much of a dent on my 2 terabyte hard disc, to be honest. Get yourselves proper computers that are up to modern standard. I bet they've got computers like yours in the "How we lived then" part of urban museums.


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## AlisonM (Sep 21, 2016)

mikeyB said:


> Doesn't make much of a dent on my 2 terabyte hard disc, to be honest. Get yourselves proper computers that are up to modern standard. I bet they've got computers like yours in the "How we lived then" part of urban museums.


The Laptop has 12Gb memory and a terrabyte of hard disk space, that's not the issue. Microsh***e used up nearly 10Gb of my monthly internet allowance on an update without my permission and in spite of the fact that I have it set as a 'Metered Connection' that means they're supposed to ask before downloading. I don't have an unlimited downloads contract, can't afford that, so I like to plan downloads in order to avoid running out of allowance.


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## Vicsetter (Sep 22, 2016)

As far as I understand it Metered Connection (on Wifi or phone connection) will not stop the download of priority updates, which I presume this Anniversary update is.  You can see the Microsoft explanation of Metered connections here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17452/windows-metered-internet-connections-faq
I believe that One-Drive doesn't respect the Metered Connection setting!!, unless you change another setting under One-Drive Metered Connection.
There are other settings to stop the download of drivers, and also for Bing search suggestions.

If you don't mind delving you can set an Ethernet connection to metered by hacking the registry: http://www.howtogeek.com/262477/how-to-set-an-ethernet-connection-as-metered-in-windows-8-and-10/

Metered Connections have been the same since Windows 8.  If you want to defer these updates you should have bought any version of Windows other than the 'Home edition'.

Just to annoy people even more, there is a problem with the update that has affected a number of users (freezing their PC) who have SSD drives, no solution is present other than rolling back to the previous operating system.


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## AndBreathe (Sep 22, 2016)

@AlisonM - I can appreciate how frustrating that would be.  Although not impacted by any usage limits, I did notice when I did my updates (I was able to do them manually across my machines) they didn't always work first time around, and needed more than one restart to complete the updates.

I'm on Win10 Pro, 64 bit.


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## Mark T (Sep 22, 2016)

Another excellent marketing ploy by Microsoft.....  for Android, Apple and Linux that is


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## AlisonM (Sep 22, 2016)

I've decided I'm moving over to Linux (Ubuntu most likely), just need to decide which one. Anyone out there using it?


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## Vicsetter (Sep 22, 2016)

AlisonM said:


> I've decided I'm moving over to Linux (Ubuntu most likely), just need to decide which one. Anyone out there using it?


Good luck on that, ha ha, hope you are into low level command line stuff (anyone remember DOS).


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## Mark T (Sep 22, 2016)

AlisonM said:


> I've decided I'm moving over to Linux (Ubuntu most likely), just need to decide which one. Anyone out there using it?


I'd recommend looking at Linux Mint.  I'm not using it right now, current computer is locked to Window but I have in the past.


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## mikeyB (Sep 22, 2016)

I'm with Vic on this one. Linux is for people who love playing around in the depths of their OS to figure out the latest crash, googling for other people who have had the same problem. It's an open source code with no authority or responsibility for assistance. There is no help desk, so as Vic says, best of luck, and enjoy finding new friends on the web who can help you with problems. They are all very friendly.


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## AlisonM (Sep 23, 2016)

I did have a lappy running Ubuntu at one time and got on well with it, and yes, I love tinkering. LOL. I'm looking at Mint Cinnamon and thinking to run it from a USB stick till I see how it goes, while keeping Whinedoze until I'm sure.


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## Northerner (Sep 23, 2016)

I've been considering a Chromebook - anyone know if they're any good? What do you do about Office software on them?


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## mikeyB (Sep 23, 2016)

Northerner said:


> I've been considering a Chromebook - anyone know if they're any good? What do you do about Office software on them?


Office documents and spreadsheets can be read by Google Docs. Thats an online word processor, so I guess you are stuffed on a train with no wifi. That's about it. A Chromebook won't run Office, and it's a struggle installing a proper word processor like WordPerfect. A Chromebook is all fart and no shit. Very pretty, but it's not a proper computer. Not for using as an office machine, anyway, but should be good for games. Don't do it.


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## Vicsetter (Sep 23, 2016)

I got an HP Pavilion x2 Intel Atom 10" from Sainsburys when they were getting rid of them.  About £220  from Argos now.  Nice little portable notebook which detaches from the keyboard.  Not massively powerfull and limited on diskspace (32G on base model) but it runs office and a web browser  and email so does all I want.  It is running Windows 10, which I have no problem with.


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## Mark T (Sep 23, 2016)

mikeyB said:


> I'm with Vic on this one. Linux is for people who love playing around in the depths of their OS to figure out the latest crash, googling for other people who have had the same problem. It's an open source code with no authority or responsibility for assistance. There is no help desk, so as Vic says, best of luck, and enjoy finding new friends on the web who can help you with problems. They are all very friendly.


Actually, I believe you can get paid user support for Linux – Mandriva used to offer it at least.  But yes, most of the support is via the community, users helping each other (a bit like diabetics helping each other via a community). 

But... unless you are a corporate client, you will find MS support pretty lacking too.

With regard to “It's an open source code with no authority or responsibility for assistance” – Umm, you think MS take any responsibility either.  You might want to check their T’s & C’s which, from memory, said there software is offered with no guarantees. 

I've never actually had a crash on Linux (the kernel is pretty solid).  It's actually usually the window manager that will crash and it's usually a driver issue.  My current problem is that I have a Dell with a built in graphics card and there are no Linux drivers for it (and I can't add a discrete card).


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## Vicsetter (Sep 24, 2016)

I noticed my hp PC installed the anniversary update closely followed by 2 further updates (one for Flash player)!!  Having said that my phone seems to get several updates to apps every few days. I also have a number of Android devices that will never receive an update as they have been passed over (unless you want to dig into the operating system and hack it).


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## mikeyB (Sep 24, 2016)

Vicsetter said:


> I noticed my hp PC installed the anniversary update closely followed by 2 further updates (one for Flash player)!!  Having said that my phone seems to get several updates to apps every few days. I also have a number of Android devices that will never receive an update as they have been passed over (unless you want to dig into the operating system and hack it).


Aye, and it always seems to be the same apps that keep updating, BBCi, BBC Sport, Chrome. Weird.


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## AlisonM (Sep 24, 2016)

Yes Vic, that's what I got lumbered with, and it reactivated crap like Edge and Cortana which I had disabled cos they annoyed me. The webcam keeps popping up at odd moments which is strange, can't figure out why, unless 'they' want to know who it is that hates them so much.

Android at least bundle most of their updates in smaller chunks and I can choose when to download them. I haven't seriously considered buying an Android lappy cos the spec isn't good enough. I have a decent tablet which does all an Android netbook can do, if they ever build a proper lappy, I'll reconsider. I used to be a Mac fan but they seem to be channelling Micrsh**e these days, and besides, I couldn't afford the spondulics for laptop with the necessary spec.

Oh and ref the support, I've used Micrsh**e support exactly once in almost 20 years, far canal but they were useless. If I have questions I generally go to the forums so that's no bar to Linux for me. However, I read that the latest version of Ubuntu comes with 5 years support for security and upgrades. I think I still prefer Mint, but the only way to be sure is to get a couple of USB sticks and have a go.


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## Ralph-YK (Sep 24, 2016)

AlisonM said:


> I've decided I'm moving over to Linux (Ubuntu most likely), just need to decide which one. Anyone out there using it?


I haven't looked at Ubuntu for a bit, since they brought in the Unity desktop.  I use Mint a lot.  Got 17.1 installed on a laptop.  I downloaded it at the local library.  One advantage of that is, it has VLC, and plays media stuff straight off.  Not having internet at home when I started using it, and now only from my phone, this is good for me as I don't have to start downloading stuff.



Vicsetter said:


> Good luck on that, ha ha, hope you are into low level command line stuff (anyone remember DOS).


I remember DOS. Yay, proper computing.
Any command line stuff, let alone low level? I've only done it on Linux as often as I have on Windows.



mikeyB said:


> I'm with Vic on this one. Linux is for people who love playing around in the depths of their OS to figure out the latest crash, googling for other people who have had the same problem. It's an open source code with no authority or responsibility for assistance. There is no help desk, so as Vic says, best of luck, and enjoy finding new friends on the web who can help you with problems. They are all very friendly.


Linux has never crashed on me in over 8 years.  As for "playing around in the depths ... to figure out the latest crash", that would be Windows if you're able to get into it. Googling for help is again something I've spent hours doing for Windows.  No help desk and finding new friends on the web who can help you with problems, both Windows.
mikeyB, everything you say applies to Windows.  Good luck with your M$ Sheepwear



Mark T said:


> Actually, I believe you can get paid user support for Linux – Mandriva used to offer it at least.  But yes, most of the support is via the community, users helping each other (a bit like diabetics helping each other via a community).
> 
> But... unless you are a corporate client, you will find MS support pretty lacking too.
> 
> ...


True


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## Northerner (Sep 24, 2016)

One of my first encounters with M/S updates was when upgrading my first PC (an IBM PS/1 2mb ram, 640k h/d!) from DOS 6.0 to 6.1. They recommended taking a backup first, which I duly did. I did the upgrade then tried to restore something from my backup - wouldn't do it! I had to reinstall the DOS 6.0 backup/restore utility in order to do it!   Have been massively suspicious of them ever since. I also worked on OS/2 Warp for a while - anyone ever use that? How M/S got away with W95 without huge copyright claims against them I will never know. Although having said that, back then IBM acted as though M/S didn't actually exist


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## AlisonM (Sep 24, 2016)

I still haven't forgiven them for Windows ME, what a dog's breakfast that was. And I recall the DOS days with some affection, I was a DOSser for a while till my employer bought a job lot of Macs for the office, they were far better for just about everything.


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## Vicsetter (Sep 24, 2016)

Just type CMD.EXE into Cortana and you will see DOS (well sort of).


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## mikeyB (Sep 24, 2016)

I don't know what you lot are complaining about. My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81. DOS was bloody luxury.

At work we had Dos mainly for running WordPerfect, alongside over engineered unbreakable HP printers,  but then it was all "upgraded" and Windows appeared, along with Microsoft's pitiful attempt at a word processor Word. The graphics and publications department all got Macs, of course. We got crappy plastic printers, bought, presumably as a government job lot. The only pleasure to be had was the hidden flight program built into Excel that the bored programmers had left.  The upgrade was because someone had convinced the bosses that WordPerfect wouldn't make it past the millennium. In 2005 I discovered they'd left WP on the machines, so I dug it out, fired it up and it worked fine, correct date, time the lot. That's government bosses for you.

At home I'm on Windows 10, which works just fine on my supercharged gaming PC. I've never once had a problem with Windows at home, despite the folk with Indian accents who used to call saying they were Microsoft and had detected a fault on my PC ( I used to answer with "oh no, not that old scam again" then they hung up). I've got a DOS emulator so that I can play ancient games.

And I write all this on an iPad Air 64gb.


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## Northerner (Sep 25, 2016)

My first big computer was an IBM AS/400 - backwards compatible for all software written since the early-1980s and unhackable. The only problems with that machine started appearing when people wanted to integrate it with Windoze... My company gave me the first model we bought in 1988 - cost £27,000 when new and weighs 11 stones!


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## Pumper_Sue (Sep 25, 2016)

AlisonM said:


> The Great and all poweful Microsh***e have just hijacked 10Gb of my monthly allowance for a major update. In spite of my settings telling them I have a 'Metered Connection' and not to download till I say so, they did this without asking and I'm in danger of running out before the rollover on the 28th. The politest thing I can think of to call them has 8 letters and begins with a B.


They have just done the same thing o me as well


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## mikeyB (Sep 25, 2016)

I don't think I've had a download limit this century. Not an a computer. Phone, yes.


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## Vicsetter (Sep 25, 2016)

mikeyB said:


> I don't think I've had a download limit this century. Not an a computer. Phone, yes.


Some people don't have landlines so rely on Mifi dongles or tethering to their phone.
BTW those on Windows 7 and 8 need to check they are not liable to download the Windows 10 update (don't know if this is still happening), see: http://thehackernews.com/2015/09/how-to-windows-10.html
BTW2 check your C drive root for a folder *$Windows.~BT*  (note it may be hidden) which was nearly 6Gb on my machine, this contains and old copy of the OS if you need to revert back or an upgrade download. (To clean up your hard drive type DISK CLEANUP into Cortana and select the appropriate options (including the one for system files))  I just recovered over 34Gb from my Solid State Hard drive.

I don't know if this will work but if you run a decent firewall (or your router permits it) you can block the following addresses:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
http://*.windowsupdate.microsoft.com
https://*.windowsupdate.microsoft.com
http://*.update.microsoft.com
https://*.update.microsoft.com
http://*.windowsupdate.com
http://download.windowsupdate.com
http://download.microsoft.com
http://*.download.windowsupdate.com
http://wustat.windows.com
http://ntservicepack.microsoft.com
http://stats.microsoft.com
https://stats.microsoft.com
This may stop MS from downloading updates (it may block other things as well).


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## AlisonM (Sep 25, 2016)

@Northerner, @mikeyB, SinclairZX Spectrum for me. Loved that wee beasty. Loved BASIC too.


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## Northerner (Sep 25, 2016)

My first ever was a ZX81 - typed a ten line program in from 'Sinclair User', it didn't work, I found out there was a missing semi-colon and I was hooked!  Always thought the BBC computers were way out of reach for most people at the time, and some of the technology they had on 'Micro Live' was totally unaffordable. I liked the fact you could download programs from the telly though!


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## AlisonM (Sep 25, 2016)

My first program was a little thing that displayed a bit of the Julia* Set, for my mum's birthday. It played on the telly screen all day and she was dead chuffed with it. As it drilled down, the design was always the same, no matter how far down the rabbit hole you went. Hypnotic.

* Mum's name was Julia


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## muddlethru (Sep 25, 2016)

I wish I knew what you lot are talking about ,it's all gobbly gook to me. I'm computer illiterate. Ho hum I just muddle through.


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## Northerner (Sep 25, 2016)

AlisonM said:


> My first program was a little thing that displayed a bit of the Julia* Set, for my mum's birthday. It played on the telly screen all day and she was dead chuffed with it. As it drilled down, the design was always the same, no matter how far down the rabbit hole you went. Hypnotic.
> 
> * Mum's name was Julia


Ha - that was a great thing to type into one of the display spectrums in WH Smiths!


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## AlisonM (Sep 25, 2016)

muddlethru said:


> I wish I knew what you lot are talking about ,it's all gobbly gook to me. I'm computer illiterate. Ho hum I just muddle through.


I'm a sad techie, I admit it and I'm afraid it's terminal.


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## mikeyB (Sep 25, 2016)

I got a BBC computer from a drug company who needed the input from anonymised patient records for their new BP drug Adalat, so I had the equivalent of a very early dial up modem. I was awe struck. The chipsets were made by ARM, who went on to much higher things, like making the processors in nearly every mobile phone on Earth, paricularly iPhones.

Needless to say, I spent most of the time using it for playing Elite, and the brilliant The Sentinel. There were oodles of Dorling Kindersley educational programs for kids as well.


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## Ralph-YK (Sep 25, 2016)

The terminal is your friend. Just type:
FORMAT C: [ENTER]
Y [ENTER]


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## Ralph-YK (Sep 25, 2016)

I've got Windows XP, Linux Mint 17.1, and a copy of 98 that I want to reinstall.
I've lost my copy of Linux Knoppix 5.1, otherwise I'd still be using that.
Android on my phone, and now tablet. New to that 18 month ago.


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## mikeyB (Sep 25, 2016)

Ralph-YK said:


> The terminal is your friend. Just type:
> FORMAT C: [ENTER]
> Y [ENTER]


I did that on my last day at work, Ralph. Hilarious


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## AlisonM (Sep 28, 2016)

I've ordered a copy of Linux Mint 18 MATE LTS on USB and DVD (in case the USB doesn't work as a boot disc). Does anyone know of a decent TTS that works in Mint, the blurb I've seen seems to indicate there may be a dearth of such and I like to have my books/web pages read to me while I'm busy crocheting.

I've also gone at got myself a second MiFi contract of 20Gb for £13 pm. I recently renewed my phone contract with 3 and ended up with more allowance and more minutes and unlimited texts for about half what I was paying before. I kept the Galaxy 5 cos I loves it and the OS is updatable. I've spent the rebate on Spotify Prime and the second MiFi, so I now have monthly allowances totalling 35Gb (plus 4Gb on the phone that I can use for tethering) and I don't think even Microsh**e could hijack all that.

I loves 3 as well, their support people are aces. The website is total pants, but the support in store or on the phone couldn't be bettered.


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## mikeyB (Sep 28, 2016)

You can spot the people on 3 here on Mull. They're the ones walking around with their phones held high or climbing on chairs looking for a signal.


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## AlisonM (Sep 28, 2016)

Signal in Snechie is pretty good. In Peterborough it's pants and in Wells-Next-The-Sea or Knipton it's non-existent. But, on the whole, there's pretty good coverage wherever I go.


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## Ralph-YK (Sep 29, 2016)

AlisonM said:


> I've ordered a copy of Linux Mint 18 MATE LTS on USB and DVD


Ordered.  I would have done you a copy. For only a _small_ fee to cover my 'costs'. 



AlisonM said:


> Does anyone know of a decent TTS that works in Mint,


I believe there's a version of Ubuntu specifically for blind people.  (the original developer(?) of Ubuntu's wife is blind).  I'm guessing that includes TTS.  Also that he got feedback on how good it was. That should work on Mint.  Beyound that I don't know


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## AlisonM (Sep 29, 2016)

Thanks @Ralph-YK. I needed a new USB stick anyway and the only cost is the price of that. The SW and the DVD are free. I've been given a link to the Ubuntu TTS and will give it a whirl.


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