Windows System Recovery hasn't been backing up since October

[leadeater]

8 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

And the one that you keep on a shockingly tight leash networking wise:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wgt35yfbjxlmw0n/Spy10FW.jpg?dl=0

Mitigation is hardly control, but you can do what ever you like I'm not going to/can't stop you. At the very least using an in-band firewall is a heck of a lot better than butchering the OS, but I'm betting you've done both.

[jagdtigger]

1 hour ago, leadeater said:

Mitigation is hardly control, but you can do what ever you like I'm not going to/can't stop you. At the very least using an in-band firewall is a heck of a lot better than butchering the OS, but I'm betting you've done both.

The only butchering was done to remove defender and cortana. The rest was done via PS, regedit, services.msc and taskmgr. And cleaned out the remenants of uninstalled UWP apps with a live CD. (Its alarming how many unnecessary stuff is enabled/installed by default.)

Edited July 2, 2019 by jagdtigger

[GoodBytes]

11 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

The only butchering was done to remove defender and cortana. The rest was done via PS, regedit, services.msc and taskmgr. And cleaned out the remenants of uninstalled UWP apps with a live CD. (Its alarming how many unnecessary stuff is enabled/installed by default.)

I agree. Microsoft should remove DirectX and OpenGL (including Vulkan) support, including the foundation to even allow this. I don't play games on my PC because it is too old to do this, so I don't want Windows be bloated with this waste. Windows should pull the plug on this thing called "gaming", maybe sell it as a 500$ add-on license, I don't use it. Most enterprise don't use it, most users don't play games.

[jagdtigger]

2 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

I agree. Microsoft should remove DirectX and OpenGL (including Vulkan) support, including the foundation to even allow this. I don't play games on my PC because it is too old to do this, so I don't want Windows be bloated with this waste. Windows should pull the plug on this thing called "gaming", maybe sell it as a 500$ add-on license, I don't use it. Most enterprise don't use it, most users don't play games.

Those are actually useful components. Which cant be said about cortana and most off the uwp crapware.

[79wjd]

4 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

I agree. Microsoft should remove DirectX and OpenGL (including Vulkan) support, including the foundation to even allow this. I don't play games on my PC because it is too old to do this, so I don't want Windows be bloated with this waste. Windows should pull the plug on this thing called "gaming", maybe sell it as a 500$ add-on license, I don't use it. Most enterprise don't use it, most users don't play games.

That seems a bit insensitive.

 

I think it would be better if Microsoft had a team of about 500 million people creating custom tailored versions to best suit each user.

[jagdtigger]

11 minutes ago, 79wjd said:

That seems a bit insensitive.

 

I think it would be better if Microsoft had a team of about 500 million people creating custom tailored versions to best suit each user.

Or just make it modular...... (Like a modern OS.)

[YedZed]

On 6/30/2019 at 10:19 AM, WereCatf said:

To be honest, 55€ isn't "peanuts" to everybody. Nice for you to be in the group of people who can just throw 55€ on something on a whim, but I, for example, do not belong in that group.

 

That said, I do echo the sentiment: 7GB isn't anything.

I'm trying to think of a situation where I really need specifically that 7gb. Like, a one terabyte drive has like 932gb on it, and idk, I feel like if I only had that much I would probably just scale my needs to fit it.

[79wjd]

4 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Or just make it modular...... (Like a modern OS.)

Which would be such a massive undertaking to benefit such a small percentage of users that it makes literally zero sense to do.

 

No one is denying that Windows could have been designed better, but that's very different from the overly dramatic claims that it's a garbage OS that is hindering the majority of it's users when in reality it's a very very small vocal minority that are complaining while the vast majority of users have no problem with it.

[GoodBytes]

22 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Those are actually useful components. Which cant be said about cortana and most off the uwp crapware.

Nope. 100% useless. Even hardware acceleration is something I can live without. CPU is fast enough to handle all this just fine.

[YedZed]

25 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

I agree. Microsoft should remove DirectX and OpenGL (including Vulkan) support, including the foundation to even allow this. I don't play games on my PC because it is too old to do this, so I don't want Windows be bloated with this waste. Windows should pull the plug on this thing called "gaming", maybe sell it as a 500$ add-on license, I don't use it. Most enterprise don't use it, most users don't play games.

Honestly, just remove everything except the browser. 

But obviously, not Edge. Edge is gross. They should partner with Google and include Chrome by default, and forget the rest.

Although, to be honest, Windows seems like a bit of an antique name. I mean, every OS has windows in it's GUI these days. 

So we gotta make a new name, one that's actually named after its unique features. Well, what do we have? Chrome... Not much else...

I'VE GOT IT! We'll call it.......

---Chrome OS---

[GoodBytes]

23 minutes ago, 79wjd said:

That seems a bit insensitive.

 

I think it would be better if Microsoft had a team of about 500 million people creating custom tailored versions to best suit each user.

Then you'l complain about too many editions, and you'll face the issue of wanting a mix of 2 or more editions, but not all.

[79wjd]

4 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Then you'l complain about too many editions, and you'll face the issue of wanting a mix of 2 or more editions, but not all.

Hmmmm

 

Make that 7.6999999999 billion employees. Then everything will be perfect for everybody.

 

 

 

Except the same three people in the corner of the room who will literally always bitch about something.
 

 

[GoodBytes]

29 minutes ago, jagdtigger said:

Those are actually useful components. Which cant be said about cortana and most off the uwp crapware.

Not for me. Not at all for me.

I use Your Phone, Skype, Calculator (which is actually good, unlike the basic one that comes with phones... heck a company just released a port of Windows 10 calculator and check the reviews: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uno.platform.calculator while reports of being a bit buggy for a first version, and an unofficial port, as you can read people are interpreted and excited for it). Already past over 10k download for something that was released a few days ago.

 

I also use the video player and music player of Windows 10 ;cause it can play anything I through at it as it has all the built-in codec of all the popular formats. The Store to enjoy getting apps like: Netflix properly (1080p/4K/HDR/surround sound), Paint.net, To-Do (is an app that we use to share list and plan my day.) Spotify, WSL, X410 and more, without having a stupid dedicated startup updater that runs with the system. I have 1 for all my apps from there.

 

Skype I use. Works the best and provide the best video and audio quality when reaching out to family from abroad. Works perfectly fine with friends as well.

I also use the Alarm & Clock app to keep track when cooking different things at times.

 

I actually use Cortana. I like the ability to make her ring my phone to find it, track packages, notify me when I should leave based on current traffic conditions for work. In the car, it has excellent voice recognition for sending and reading SMS as well.

 

Let's not forget Mail/Calendar apps. I do use Outook as well, but I keep Outlook for work, and personal stuff in Mail/Calendar app. The nice thing with Mail/Calendar app is that I don't need to have Outlook up and running fully, and on my taskbar, to get notifications.

 

and more...

Gaming.. I don't do on my PC.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

5 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

I actually use Cortana.

I KNEW IT !!!!!

 

Only a Microsoft employee would use Cortana.  You just blew your cover.

 

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

On 7/1/2019 at 11:04 PM, Loote said:

< pic of 40+GB Win7 Windows folder >

Meanwhile on Vista ...

 

 

And that's updated as far as it'll go via Windows Update.  (You can continue to manually update Vista until January 2020 using Server2008 patches)

[Ha?]

Love how microshaft continually play both sides if the coin to fit whatever agenda they are deploying at a given time. Apparently disabling "system restore" was due to taking up too much disk space meanwhile they  literally reserve GB's worth of space for future updates filled with bloatware no one wants...

[Loote]

20 hours ago, leadeater said:

You can do both, but suffice to say most want it completely disabled when looking for it and if no updates can install it isn't going to restart. I have yet to come across a guide that shows the GPO way unless you are using search terms a system administrator would use.

 

<Notify for download and auto install>

 

Computer will never reboot with this set.

The first tutorial that I've found and was able to follow had the exact policy, I went with 'Auto download and notify for install' and also another policy, which roughly translated is 'No auto restarting after planned updates when users are logged in', I have the Pro version and the OS did restart automagically, the first time was ~9 months after I set those policies, but it did happen several times more. At first I was afraid my PC got hacked, but going through the system event log, it proved to be caused by updates, the new tutorial was about catching the restart event and blocking it iirc, I know from experience normal settings and group policies are not enough.

 

20 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

On top of things, guess what? You just updated Windows regardless.... so why have it disabled to begin with? 

I've had a long day at work, my brain is not working, I have this thing that I'm in the middle of, I probably saved everything, but I'd still need to open 10 different apps from several different locations just to go back to what I'm doing, so I'd rather finish this tomorrow and restart after that. Actually, as rare as this happens, the first time the group policy didn't block the auto update I lost 2 hours of work going back to the point I was at before.

18 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

I use Your Phone, Skype, Calculator(...)

I also use the video player and music player of Windows 10 ;cause it can play anything I through at it as it has all the built-in codec of all the popular formats. The Store (...)

Skype I use. Works the best and provide the best video and audio quality when reaching out to family from abroad.

I also use the Alarm & Clock app to keep track when cooking different things at times.

 

I actually use Cortana. I like the ability to make her ring my phone to find it, track packages, notify me when I should leave based on current traffic conditions for work. In the car, it has excellent voice recognition for sending and reading SMS as well.

 

Let's not forget Mail/Calendar apps. I do use Outook as well, but I keep Outlook for work, and personal stuff in Mail/Calendar app. The nice thing with Mail/Calendar app is that I don't need to have Outlook up and running fully, and on my taskbar, to get notifications.

I don't know what 'Your Phone' is,

with Skype, I understand why everyone having one may be convenient, but the interface of the app was much better in the past, using my old skype id and no Microsoft account makes it annoying. The sound quality is better on Discord, though it's not a 1:1 replacement for Skype and I don't know of other good communicator that uses opus.
Windows Media Player, or whatever it is nowadays, was never able to play anything out of the box, with codec pack it worked, but lacked the configuration setting, Windows Media Center is terrible and one of the first things I remove from Windows, even if it got better. I won't believe the default windows Media Player would be OK with playing h264 10 bit, or 4:4:4 video or BD folder until I see it. I agree that there should be some basic photo viewer and music/video player, but I don't like current defaults.
Store is a good idea, just like repos on Linux systems, though I like that I can download the .debs and Microsoft store doesn't allow something like that afaik
Alarm seems like an additional app from the store, I had my moment of using Alarm on my PC, but seems like bloat
Cortana... should be easy to remove, I understand it's a feature they promote the system with, but everything described I think my phone/google services do better and Cortana is not lightweight(also comes with many privacy compromises)
Mail/calendar once again, I don't like the apps, but system should have them(with simple removal option)

The problems start when you need 'hacks' to delete those features.

11 hours ago, Captain Chaos said:

Meanwhile on Vista ...

Nice, just to be sure, what's the age of the os? Mine has over 100k powered on hours and some additional features like IIS added.

[leadeater]

19 minutes ago, Loote said:

I know from experience normal settings and group policies are not enough.

Mine has never rebooted with those settings, neither has the thousands/millions of corporate controlled computers either. However I do seem to remember an update a while ago that was broken and forced a reboot, that was fixed though. Since Microsoft actually releases patches out in waves, at least back then, you could never really know if you were in the first group to see updates or in a later group with potentially improved revisions of the update. However additional to those corporate computers most use WSUS/SCCM and get to control when the updates get approved and seen by computers, but of all the manual patch computers we have they are all truly manual and have never self updated after updates have been approved and seen by the computer.

 

Pointing to a non existent update server URL will stop it regardless of any other settings though, you can just revert back to default setting when you actually want to update.

[leadeater]

38 minutes ago, Loote said:

Windows Media Center is terrible and one of the first things I remove from Windows, even if it got better.

Windows Media Center was great, used that on a dedicated HTPC for years with the Media Center remote. TV tuning worked very well and pulled TV guide information so series record worked etc. If you didn't specifically use it only for the intended purpose then yea it sucked hard and made no sense but for a no keyboard/mouse setup connected to a TV it worked great, was actually pissed Microsoft killed it but I don't care anymore, Plex is what I use now.

 

I tried all the other alternatives at the time and none of them were as stable, got guide information properly or the interface was just horrid. Mind you most interfaces back then were horrid anyway so Windows Media Center was above a very blow bar heh.

[Loote]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

Pointing to a non existent update server URL will stop it regardless of any other settings though, you can just revert back to default setting when you actually want to update.

Yeah, it's a genius and simple hack, but on my machine I like the 'download and notify' option, I don't always follow the vulnerability news and some vulnerabilities get patched before they're published.
I assume you tried Kodi? I mean, it's supposed to be XBMC successor, which sounds like Media Center's brother. Some people love Kodi, for me it lacked Plex's transcode abilities, but I don't know your use case

[GoodBytes]

2 hours ago, Loote said:

I've had a long day at work, my brain is not working, I have this thing that I'm in the middle of, I probably saved everything, but I'd still need to open 10 different apps from several different locations just to go back to what I'm doing, so I'd rather finish this tomorrow and restart after that. Actually, as rare as this happens, the first time the group policy didn't block the auto update I lost 2 hours of work going back to the point I was at before.

Good news! You get a Windows 7 style notification to ask you if you want to restart now, schedule time, or later. And on top of this, you have Active Hours which you can set, and Windows will not do updates at this period. It is all options found under Windows Update. 

 

It is important to setup Windows maintenance schedule, like previous versions of Windows so that it doesn't interrupt your flow. 

 

2 hours ago, Loote said:

I don't know what 'Your Phone' is,

Shame, you should look into it if you have an Android phone. In summary, you can send/receive SMS/MMS from your PC, access pictures from the phone, and get phone notifications on you PC. More to come.

 

2 hours ago, Loote said:

with Skype, I understand why everyone having one may be convenient, but the interface of the app was much better in the past, using my old skype id and no Microsoft account makes it annoying.

It's ok the new interface. You are just to what you know. Once you know it, it is fine. I won't say it is perfect, buy neither the old one to be honest.

 

2 hours ago, Loote said:

The sound quality is better on Discord, though it's not a 1:1 replacement for Skype and I don't know of other good communicator that uses opus.

I guess it depends on where you are and the receiving end, as well as connection quality end to end

 

2 hours ago, Loote said:

Windows Media Player, or whatever it is nowadays, was never able to play anything out of the box, with codec pack it worked, but lacked the configuration setting,

Time have changed. It plays all popular formats, including support for most MKVs, MP4, and FLAC.

 

 

2 hours ago, Loote said:

Windows Media Center is terrible and one of the first things I remove from Windows, even if it got better. I won't believe the default windows Media Player would be OK with playing h264 10 bit, or 4:4:4 video or BD folder until I see it.

That is gone already. Since Windows 8 (as an add on if you really wanted it)

 

2 hours ago, Loote said:

Store is a good idea, just like repos on Linux systems, though I like that I can download the .debs and Microsoft store doesn't allow something like that afaik

Correct. In this case it is up to the developer. And yes, Windows allows side-loading by default.

 

 

2 hours ago, Loote said:

Cortana... should be easy to remove, I understand it's a feature they promote the system with, but everything described I think my phone/google services do better and Cortana is not lightweight(also comes with many privacy compromises)
Mail/calendar once again, I don't like the apps, but system should have them(with simple removal option)

Yes. I agree, and it is coming. I am not sure on the removal part, but Cortana was been separated from everything, and now it is being no longer part of the OS. On the next or following version of Windows, Cortana will be a store app. Speculation is that it opens doors to other assistant, but considering that Alexa on Windows is already super basic, and Google is Google only world, beside Chrome, I highly doubt that it will be coming. The real reason for the separation however, is being able to update Cortana without being locked to Window version releases, and as a result can release improvements and bug fixes now, and not wait several month for people to get it. 

 

2 hours ago, Loote said:

The problems start when you need 'hacks' to delete those features.

That is because it is integrated into other things. So it can be removed once things separates and APIs comes along for other apps to take place or the integration feature is dropped.

 

All in all, let's assume you want Cortana out and Alarm, even Your Phone, say you have an iPhone instead, or a very old Android phone to use it, then that is still a few MBs.

[79wjd]

18 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Good news! You get a Windows 7 style notification to ask you if you want to restart now, schedule time, or later. And on top of this, you have Active Hours which you can set, and Windows will not do updates at this period. It is all options found under Windows Update. 

Active hours is only a small window in the day. And if that notification happens to come in while you're at lunch, or overnight, then tough luck; it will restart by the time you get back.

 

[GoodBytes]

5 minutes ago, 79wjd said:

Active hours is only a small window in the day. And if that notification happens to come in while you're at lunch, or overnight, then tough luck; it will restart by the time you get back.

 

No one actively works for 18h per day. That is the range.

Notification for restart will remain until you close it or answer it. When you restart, Windows will reopen your last open programs. If they support it, it can reload your last project and bring you back where you left off.

[79wjd]

5 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

No one actively works for 18h per day. That is the range.

Notification for restart will remain until you close it or answer it. When you restart, Windows will reopen your last open programs. If they support it, it can reload your last project and bring you back where you left off.

Great, so that encoding that's been running in Handbrake for the last 36 hours is now lost because Windows wanted to restart and I wasn't at my computer for 36 hours straight to say no.

[GoodBytes]

7 minutes ago, 79wjd said:

Great, so that encoding that's been running in Handbrake for the last 36 hours is now lost because Windows wanted to restart and I wasn't at my computer for 36 hours straight to say no.

That would not happen, because you have popup asking you to restart, unless it is disabled Check your settings.