Your comparing the start screen with a folder? apples and oranges. You can of course add custom folder icons if you wish, or by default let it populate its own preview pics from the folder contents.
The Asus laptop came with W8.0 which I upgraded to 8.1. The "invitation" icon for W10 had been sitting there taunting me, but I ignored it like I have been doing with my other machines. I usually just left the laptop turned on sitting on the table in the living room. I do this so I can wake it up quickly to Google any unknown phone number that I see on my caller ID before answering it. We needed to answer calls from the contractors who were building our house, but ignore, or rudely answer the scammers.
We were gone all day a few weeks ago, and the computer was asking for a reboot when I got home. OK, this has happened before, so I rebooted to find a W10 upgrade in progress. To be fair this laptop has had a problem with the track pad and the touch screen since day one. Random events can be triggered by walking across the floor.
I have not decided just what to do with it yet.
I have several W7 machines that are for general use (this one, with the "no file" taunt), or customized for specific tasks. One is just an audio analyzer, and another is a home recording studio. They seem to work OK with the box standard version of W7 and I have no intention of "upgrading" them until here is no choice.
I have also been building some application specific machines that would benefit from a stripped down version of W7, mainly for power reduction and hard drive requirements. I have a W7 powered guitar amp. I will be making another version that runs on batteries.
We had an IT department at Motorola that kept MS under control on the in house network and got everything Windows XP, Mac (very few), Unix, and Linux machines to all play with each other. One of the IT guys made me a "special" XP disk that didn't need to call home and didn't have all the bells and whistles that bogged it down. Unfortunately the entire IT department was laid off before I was, and I have lost touch with the wizard of XP.
You had posted something in another thread that I can't find now that linked to a program that allows stripping down W7, but the program download link did not work. I have a "test" machine to experiment on. Any hint of where to start? Which ISO to download?
Here's that link , Tube. RT Se7en Lite | Products
That just allows you to remove some components so the resulting ISO. won't
install them by default. Examples are IE , help , the media player , or even
the built in driver cache.
That just makes W7 small (<2 gig max). There are more advanced hacks to
fix the SXS bug , make for minimal services , all sorts of other preset settings
to make for a OS with a minimal "attack surface".
The "underground" ISO has all these incorporated. What is cool , I installed
this on my wife's HP OEM , used her legit key - it activated as genuine.
Updates - after W7.1 ... just a few patches to fix any 0 day stuff. Most
intrusions into W7 are through media player/IE , and other M$ "fluff".
Use firefox/Chrome (and flash) , not IE. Flash is the biggest security risk ,
Java is #2. I have Flash , but it is blocked .... unless I need it.
"super cookie" = website dumps tracking info into your flash cache to track
you through a flash based ad. Flash is also the easiest way to inject malware. Java even worse , can gain admin through active X.
The addons to give a "richer experience" also are weaknesses.
OS
That just allows you to remove some components so the resulting ISO. won't
install them by default. Examples are IE , help , the media player , or even
the built in driver cache.
That just makes W7 small (<2 gig max). There are more advanced hacks to
fix the SXS bug , make for minimal services , all sorts of other preset settings
to make for a OS with a minimal "attack surface".
The "underground" ISO has all these incorporated. What is cool , I installed
this on my wife's HP OEM , used her legit key - it activated as genuine.
Updates - after W7.1 ... just a few patches to fix any 0 day stuff. Most
intrusions into W7 are through media player/IE , and other M$ "fluff".
Use firefox/Chrome (and flash) , not IE. Flash is the biggest security risk ,
Java is #2. I have Flash , but it is blocked .... unless I need it.
"super cookie" = website dumps tracking info into your flash cache to track
you through a flash based ad. Flash is also the easiest way to inject malware. Java even worse , can gain admin through active X.
The addons to give a "richer experience" also are weaknesses.
OS
Looking at that , W7.1 is the same (below). It will either show the first
frame of a video , the first image file in a folder , or you can pick any
image from any other folder to fully customize it.
It exists , but with 3TB and 200K files ... I need indexing more than the
"eyecandy". The "eyecandy" slows the indexing/search down on large
magnetic drives.
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Attachments
Its a while since I used W7 but I seem to recall that right clicking a folder from explorer view did not have the customise option, to get that you had to drill down through >computer>user name etc which was messy. Same in 8.1
I don't know .... folder > properties gets it in both W7 X86/64 (ultimate).
It might be disabled in the lesser editions - (home/basic) ?
There are a lot of functionalities that are registry enabled/disabled in
Vista - W8. W8 can even get aero back with a DLL hack - Aero Glass for Windows 8.x+ M$ coded the 3D hardware acceleration part
of the GUI to not do glass , even as the GUI is still accelerated ....
quite pointless.
I could even rip the whole APP/tile part out of 8 and make it 7 again.
Integrate "glass 8" ... create the ISO - done.
Why bother , 7 is 8 ... is 10. Same core for the OS , just stupid
"tinkering" to sell us "new" stuff. No real innovation.
"Snake oil operating systems" .... 😀
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You could well be right on that. My W7 license is for Pro version and that wasn't customisable, my 8.1 is just the cooking grade version.
On a different tack, this is quite revealing,
List of Windows 7 telemetry updates to avoid | Wilders Security Forums
I do not care that much for the telemetry, and do not dislike the start screen of W8.1. I do not spend much time at the PC looking at the start screen, but work withe the programs and switch with Alt Tab.
OTOH, I'm much more annoyed that W8.1 showed, in the file explorer, all files (videos) stored in my Pana Sat receiver / HDD Video Recorder (attached via wired LAN). I think it worked via DLNA, the Pana has been set up to be a DLNA server.
W10 Explorer shows only some few, maybe 1/5th of all. Windows Media Player shows all, and plays them without Problems.
As I sometimes like to copy registered films to the W10 SP3 of my daughter, in order that she can watch the films offline when she has no network, this has gotten almost impossible with OS means. And I can't copy with WMP.
W7 doesn't show anything btw. Only WMP.
OTOH, I'm much more annoyed that W8.1 showed, in the file explorer, all files (videos) stored in my Pana Sat receiver / HDD Video Recorder (attached via wired LAN). I think it worked via DLNA, the Pana has been set up to be a DLNA server.
W10 Explorer shows only some few, maybe 1/5th of all. Windows Media Player shows all, and plays them without Problems.
As I sometimes like to copy registered films to the W10 SP3 of my daughter, in order that she can watch the films offline when she has no network, this has gotten almost impossible with OS means. And I can't copy with WMP.
W7 doesn't show anything btw. Only WMP.
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Folders you create will have the customize tab , shell icons (built in folders)
do not in win 7.
I think any version can have this functionality toggled by - Customize Tab - Add or Remove from Properties - Windows 7 Help Forums -this registry tweak.
Updates to avoid , ha ha ... most of those are microsoft's built in "spyware".
Anything that references "customer experience" (or even updates).
- Windows: List Installed OS Hotfixes and Service Packs from the Command Line
Here , you can see or even make a text of installed updates. I have nothing past KB281xxxx except 976902 and 982018 ... those made SP1
possible for the "underground" Install ISO.
It seems a few of those post KB287xxxx allow M$ (and the CIA/NSA) to
scan every storage device at will .... very bad.
Also , good to have anything "remote xxx" "update" - have the service
totally disabled.
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They sort of do lol. (I'm on 8.1 now).
If I look at the folder via 'This PC' > Documents > and then the folder I want, then it does have the customise option. Look at the folder from libraries and even though I can expand down to the individual folders, the customise option is missing.
Thanks for the link 🙂 One of Shawns excellent tutorials.
Well, I'm not having great W8.1 day as of yesterday. Microsoft, despite me never registering an interest in W10 have seen fit to push the upgrade to me. I even have Windows Update set to notify only which was no barrier in this case.
Currently picking up from a clean Windows image from several months ago and rebuilding without all the W10 compatibility updates. Have now turned OFF Windows update and created task to just update Defender. I'll install critical updates manually from the MS catalogue.
On an Android at the moment so typing replies is painful.
Currently picking up from a clean Windows image from several months ago and rebuilding without all the W10 compatibility updates. Have now turned OFF Windows update and created task to just update Defender. I'll install critical updates manually from the MS catalogue.
On an Android at the moment so typing replies is painful.
Sorry to hear that, Mooly. I'm not usually a MS-basher but that's just dirty pool. Inexcusable.
I've always operated from the position, "I'll tell the computer what to do. I don't want it telling me what to do." I would be hot.
I've always operated from the position, "I'll tell the computer what to do. I don't want it telling me what to do." I would be hot.
Its not a great situation is it. This was brought to my attention today,
Microsoft Re-Issues Windows 7 Updates Forcing Windows 10 Upgrade, Enabling Data Collection - Softpedia
Microsoft Re-Issues Windows 7 Updates Forcing Windows 10 Upgrade, Enabling Data Collection - Softpedia
Thanks for that heads up. The Win7 machine is on a LAN only, Vista or Android for the web, but it looks like some house calls in my future.
1-Uninstall any updates dealing with app telemetry.
2-find the app telemetry service in GPedit.msc , make sure it is disabled.
This new M$ spyware uses port 443 , making it hard to block.
443 is "Https" , blocking it would interfere with secure browser requests.
A work around could be to not allow core networking to use 443 , while
still allowing browser access.
Typically , the browser is the only software that has a legitimate use
for this port.
Edit - the updates might just enable all these hidden "features" ... the M$ spyware
was always there , all along.
Link - http://techne.alaya.net/?p=12499
- All the bad new updates and how to remove them.
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Thanks for the link. At some point/s in the past I have run the 'DISM reset base' command which removes the ability to uninstall updates up to that point. Can't remember when it was last run though.
I don't know what to believe with all this telemetry stuff and how much of an issue it really is performance wise.
I don't know what to believe with all this telemetry stuff and how much of an issue it really is performance wise.
I am still a two finger typist after all these years. I built my first "computer" in 1975. I have out typed W10 several times. It will just randomly start processing characters slow enough that I can overfeed the buffer causing lost characters. W8.1 did not do this, and the laptop has a Core I7 processor, albeit a slow one. It usually happens within a minute or so of start up.
I put tape over the microphone and camera and have been leaving the machine on again. So far there have been no "critical errors" but I don't use it much.
No , win 10 will not go over well with anybody who distrusts corporations
or governments....
Win8.1 is the best metric to judge W10 by ... since they are the same.
I my opinion , W10 is windows 8.2.
8.1 seemed to have a faster GUI response , because it does not have
the "eye candy" on at first install. W7.1 with no animations (max perf.)
WITH Aero is just as fast , GUI wise (and prettier).
8.1 added the mobile app BS - I don't need that.
8+/10 .... if you really look at it , just benefits M$ to enable the transition
to a new business model.
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Good tool -
BEWARE of any "win 10 privacy" tools , most will install opencandy 3rd party
spyware , as well. Yikes !
One I did find , that just toggles all the right services and shuts down
the proper telemetry "features".
Is this one - https://phrozensoft.com/download-6.html
It seems to be a W7-10 version of the old trusted "XP-antispy".
Writes a elevated batch to disable those services and reboots.
Some did comment that the network was "confused" on the first reboot ,
I did see that until I launched the browser.
I rebooted again , both home and WAN was up immediately.
-No new processes
-no change to any firewall rules
-I saw what registry changes were made , many I had already done.
-does not install at all (portable).
- It might not address the W10 host file spy "update" , but should
"privatize" both W7-8.1. I'm not not sure exactly which M$ update
tweaked the Hosts file for spy purposes.
I'll report back after 24hours ...
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BEWARE of any "win 10 privacy" tools , most will install opencandy 3rd party
spyware , as well. Yikes !
One I did find , that just toggles all the right services and shuts down
the proper telemetry "features".
Is this one - https://phrozensoft.com/download-6.html
It seems to be a W7-10 version of the old trusted "XP-antispy".
Writes a elevated batch to disable those services and reboots.
Some did comment that the network was "confused" on the first reboot ,
I did see that until I launched the browser.
I rebooted again , both home and WAN was up immediately.
-No new processes
-no change to any firewall rules
-I saw what registry changes were made , many I had already done.
-does not install at all (portable).
- It might not address the W10 host file spy "update" , but should
"privatize" both W7-8.1. I'm not not sure exactly which M$ update
tweaked the Hosts file for spy purposes.
I'll report back after 24hours ...
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