Poll: Do You Plan to Upgrade to Windows 10?

[tfudtuckerpucker]

I'm not sure how else Microsoft could tell the difference between folks like us who are licensed and someone else who is stealing.

Not any longer.

True, but the point is we should not have to reauthorize the license after 6 years of use. This is a screw-up. Sure, reauthorize the license if you're initially installing or reinstalling the OS, but don't randomly force long-term customers to do that. What if the printed license became illegible (it's almost there)?

 

[Tadpole]

OT: Has Apple's Mac software started spying on it's users yet?

 

[exnavynuke]

OT: Has Apple's Mac software started spying on it's users yet?

Yes, for years it has.

 

[explanade]

No it doesn't have crap like Cortana.

It doesn't even try to get you to set an Advertising ID or get you to log into your own computer using a online account like a Microsoft Account.

 

[exnavynuke]

Is Apple's Mac OS X Yosemite Secretly Collecting Your Location Data?

Apple collects data on it's users, their searches, etc by default. If you think they're not trying to data mine you, you're mistaken.

 

[explanade]

This is what it says in my System Settings for 10.9:

About Location Services & Privacy

Location Services allows apps and websites to gather and use information based on the current location of your computer. Your approximate location is determined using information from local Wi-Fi networks, and is collected by Location Services in a manner that doesn’t personally identify you.

When you use Spotlight or Spotlight Suggestions in Safari, the location of your Mac at the time you submit a search query to Spotlight or Safari will be sent to Apple to make Spotlight Suggestions more relevant and to improve other Apple products and services. If you turn off Location Services for Spotlight Suggestions, your precise location will not be sent to Apple. To deliver relevant search suggestions, Apple may use the IP address of your internet connection to approximate your location by matching it to a geographic region.

Apps that you have allowed to use Location Services appear in the Privacy pane of Security & Privacy preferences. Checkboxes show whether Location Services is turned on or off for an app. If you don’t want to allow Location Services for one or more apps, you can turn it off by deselecting the checkbox next to the app. If you turn Location Services off for an app, you’re prompted to turn it on again the next time that app tries to use your location data.

You can also turn Location Services off altogether by deselecting Enable Location Services in the Privacy pane of Security & Privacy preferences. Even if you disable Location Services, third party applications and websites may still use other ways to determine your location.

If you allow third party apps or websites to use your current location, you are subject to their terms and privacy policy and not the Apple Privacy Policy. You should review their terms and privacy policies to understand how they treat and use your location information.

For more information about Apple’s Privacy Policy, see Privacy - Apple.

What does it mean in practice? It uses my Wifi if I enable location services to approximate my location but doesn't say this person lives there (they get that info. if you register of course)

If I disable location services, it uses my IP to determine the approximate location.

In either case, if I type in Target in Safari, it offers as a suggestion the nearby Target, showing its address.

Now Apple isn't using my location to throw ads in my browser saying the Target near you has a sale now or has stock of the shampoo you searched on Amazon.

That's the kind of **** MS, FB and Google are doing because the last two companies make most of their money on advertising while the first one is trying to get a bigger piece of the advertising pie.

Apple isn't being paid by advertisers to find a better way to show you advertising. It has tried iAd for their mobile devices but it never went anywhere.

So that's the difference.

If they determine that I live in Centerville, Springfield because every time I do a search, it's approximating my location from the Wifi I'm connected to or the IP address my ISP gave me, so what?

As long as it's not throwing me ads about all the sales from Centerville stores, I don't care.

Nor is it building up a profile of me to try to determine my age, gender, income level, etc. that FB and some other websites are doing.

 

[exnavynuke]

And I don't care if Facebook shows me ads I might want to use instead of ads for feminine hygiene products...

The question asked was if Apple is "spying" on it's users. Spying, to me, is collecting data about their users. Apple is collecting data about their users, and even passing it on in some cases. I notice you don't seem to care for ad targeting or Microsoft, but are you aware that by default your Spotlight search information is sent to Apple... who forwards it over to Microsoft (who promise not to retain it)? They're literally passing your search information on to Bing by default. So, to me, that qualifies as "spying on it's users", hence my answering that they've been doing so for a while.

Like with Windows, however, most data collection can be turned off if you know how to do so (or just google and follow the directions to do so). Many people, however, prefer to get results that are more applicable to them and enjoy the experience more, even if some algorithm can figure out that they're an adult male and thus avoid giving them ads meant for teenage girls.

 

[explanade]

Apple sends commonly used search terms to MS.

It does NOT send IP addresses, user locations or any kind of data which would identify you to any third party.

Your own link says:

Spotlight doesn't use a persistent identifier, so a user's search history can't be created by Apple or anyone else. Apple devices only use a temporary anonymous session ID for a 15-minute period before the ID is discarded.

We also worked closely with Microsoft to protect our users' privacy. Apple forwards only commonly searched terms and only city-level location information to Bing. Microsoft does not store search queries or receive users' IP addresses.

If you don't understand how this is different from other companies building user profiles, then you need to educate yourself before spouting false-equivalency nonsense.

It's fine if you don't mind giving up YOUR privacy to get more relevant ads.

Don't crap on other people who choose to deal with companies who don't advertise to you or serve advertisers.

 

[exnavynuke]

Sorry, I missed where the question asked if they spied AND kept the data forever.. my bad.... oh wait, that wasn't stipulated. smh

 

[meierlde]

For basic location they can look at your IP address find out which ISP has it and use the location of the ISP for your location. For example although close to my ISP's office I am in a different zip code but if the web site does a backwards look up it finds the ISP's address.

 

[easysurfer]

My Windows 10 Anniversary Updated desktop has been randomly crashing on me (a couple of times during the past week). The symptoms all started after the anniversary update. After doing some investigating, the issues seems to point to an old graphics card driver that Win 10's update doesn't play nice with. Just updated the driver and hopefully, my desktop is back on track. At least til the next big update .

I spoke too soon. My computer is/was still crashing randomly. I really don't wish to do any backing out and then reinstalling. So instead ending up forking over about $40 for software (1 yr subscription) that fixes (at least hopefully) systems with such things as random crashes. I shall see in a week or two and my computer is/was crashing with the more polite BSOD about every couple of days.

For the tech and curious, referenced drive causing crash is ntoskrnl.exe and repair program I'm using is reimage repair.

http://www.toptenreviews.com/software/backup-recovery/best-system-repair-software/reimage-review/

 

[target2019]

I spoke too soon. My computer is/was still crashing randomly. I really don't wish to do any backing out and then reinstalling. So instead ending up forking over about $40 for software (1 yr subscription) that fixes (at least hopefully) systems with such things as random crashes. I shall see in a week or two and my computer is/was crashing with the more polite BSOD about every couple of days.

For the tech and curious, referenced drive causing crash is ntoskrnl.exe and repair program I'm using is reimage repair.

http://www.toptenreviews.com/software/backup-recovery/best-system-repair-software/reimage-review/

At current job the IT support person uses re-imaging as last line of troubleshooting.
Glad to hear you are trying this. Will this software identify the problem for you?
Troubleshooting situations like this can consume a lot of time.

 

[easysurfer]

At current job the IT support person uses re-imaging as last line of troubleshooting.
Glad to hear you are trying this. Will this software identify the problem for you?
Troubleshooting situations like this can consume a lot of time.

I use a free program called BlueScreenView which pulls info from the BSOD dump to indicate which driver is causing my pc to crash. That's how I found out the driver that's causing the crashing is driver ntoskrnl.exe.

The remimage software does various checks including a stability check which also accessed the BSOD dump and is supposed to replace bad OS files with fresh good ones.

So, far (but I only ran reimage about a day ago) no crash.

 

[exnavynuke]

Well, I think I've got most everything working. It only took about 10 hours and I don't know how many updates. I'm still having a couple of problems with old Win95 era programs I still like to use, but I can't really claim to be too surprised by that. Still not a fan of the Start button, very cluttered and unfriendly, but I'll eventually get it personalized. Next chore will be shutting down the MS spyware and removing the Dell bloatware, but I'll wait a couple of days for that. At least Netflix and Amazon streaming are working now. Especially since the new, super thin, high speed laptop doesn't have an optical reader, so no DVD unless I spring for an external. Oh well, at least it has a headphone jack.

As for the Start Button, I use Classic Shell which is really nice for allowing you to get an old look/feel back.

 

[TromboneAl]

I've tamed the interface enough that I don't need to use Classic Shell anymore.

Most of the apps I need are on the taskbar. If I need others, they are quickly accessed from the new version of the Start menu. I have additional commonly used apps there, plus the list of all programs is available on the left.

Also, I autohide the taskbar, which, once you get used to it, is a fantastic feature.

 

[harley]

I'm having a hell of a time trying to get Win10 to recognize my HP CP2025nw Color Laser Printer. I finally found a driver that might work, but when I try to install it the Win machine doesn't recognize that I've connected it via USB. I figure at a modest $50/hour for my troubleshooting skills I've wasted enough time on this to be able to afford that Dell AiO Color Laser Printer Walt was mentioning in another thread. I think I'm going with it. This HP was pretty old anyway. Still, Win10 sucks.

 

[easysurfer]

I use a free program called BlueScreenView which pulls info from the BSOD dump to indicate which driver is causing my pc to crash. That's how I found out the driver that's causing the crashing is driver ntoskrnl.exe.

The remimage software does various checks including a stability check which also accessed the BSOD dump and is supposed to replace bad OS files with fresh good ones.

So, far (but I only ran reimage about a day ago) no crash.

Just a follow up. The reimage software that I bought didn't work out for me. At least, I got a quick refund. So, no harm, no foul.

My computer still crashes. Looks like I'll have to think about rolling up my sleeves and doing some restoring from a Macrium Reflect image and re-updating of Windows 10 .

 

[easysurfer]

So, a couple of days ago I went ahead and tried updating again with the Win 10 anniversary update (had an image of my PC prior to the update via Marcrium Reflect). So, far (but only 2 days past) I haven't had the same crash as before. But now, there's a new issue in that the monitor randomly turns off and only way to recover is to power off the computer than back on. In otherwords, though not officially a crash, similar.

I'm ready to call Windows 10 by the name of Windows 98 .

 

[harley]

Well, I've been using it for a month or so now. I haven't had too many crashes, but definitely a lot of small annoying issues. I've come to my personal conclusion - Win10 sucks. At least for me. I want to control my computer. Win10 is based on the computer/OS/software being in charge. Time to re-up my knowledge of Linux.

 

[easysurfer]

Well, I've been using it for a month or so now. I haven't had too many crashes, but definitely a lot of small annoying issues. I've come to my personal conclusion - Win10 sucks. At least for me. I want to control my computer. Win10 is based on the computer/OS/software being in charge. Time to re-up my knowledge of Linux.

Agree on both of your conclusions. Have thought about jumping ship to another OS, but a couple of programs I really need keeps me from bailing. Namely, Turbotax and the Garmin updater for my lifetime GPS updates.

Well, twice in a couple of days, my updated PC just randomly shut down on me. Looks like I'm going to revert back my image copy of just crashing randomly and live to fight another day.

Not now, but another thought for me is to try and do a clean install. I'm not down to about option D .

 

[explanade]

My Win 10 laptop is a secondary one.

I do have a version of Quicken on it but don't use it beyond the QLP that I ran a couple of years ago.

The only other thing I use is Kodi because it's suppose to output bitstream sound when connected to my receiver to get the surround sound formats.

But the performance is really sluggish.

I don't know whether to double down by upgrading with SSD or maybe throw Linux on it.

 

[explanade]

Major update is now available. They will roll it out for automatic updates over a period of time but people can manually update to get it now.

But they've reset the privacy and data collection settings so the things some of us did to turn off the intrusive aspects may have to wait until people figure out to turn them off again.

 

[Red Badger]

Reading posts like these makes me so glad I walked away from the Microsoft world several years ago. I just got tired of the constant updates, security issues, malware and virus issues....

Apple ain't perfect, but it's miles more user friendly than Windows, imho....

I went in the other direction. Been using a Chromebook since 2013. A my "stuff" is in the cloud. Never any virus, malware, etc; and no, I do not need any security software.

I still use MS for work, but that ends in <3 months. Don't miss MS or the unstable software (or the pervasive "upgrades."

 

[jim584672]

Just did the Win 10 Creators Update. Four reboots later seems to be working ok.

 

[pb4uski]

I upgraded from Win 7 Pro to Win 10 when I bought a new laptop. Took a bit of getting used to but Win 10 and I are getting along fine now. Very stable.. I don't think I can recall it crashing once in the 2-3 months that I have had it... Quicken 2017 on Win 10... that is a whole different story.