Consider carefully before you take the leap
Published on December 28, 2021 By Daiwa In Personal Computing

This was the subject of a reply of mine to Tatiora's October post on Windows 11 Updates that I think merits a separate thread.

I've been advised by my tech support company to not install Windows 11 under any circumstances.  A major reason for that is that I (and my office network) deal with protected health information and Windows 11 is not only not HIPAA compliant but opens your computer to all kinds of background third party access.  MS has decided to go the way of Facebook and make you the product which they will sell as the primary method of sustaining their business.  The 'upgrade' may be free but orders of magnitude more intrusive, mostly silently of course (the fine print applies when you click Agree).

Windows 11, per my tech, also is a major step toward forcing all your application purchases and subscriptions into the Microsoft Store, a la Apple.  They are steadily making it harder & harder to install anything from outside their controlled ecosystem.  They actually trialed this approach with a version of Windows 10 called Windows 10S.  I learned of this when we purchased a Surface which turned out to have that OS for a dedicated purpose servicing a biometric device early this year.  Initially I thought the "S" meant a version specific to the Surface but it turns out the "S" means Store, as in Microsoft Store.  Our tech had to force an install of a regular version of Windows 10 before the software for the biometric device could be installed (it obviously wasn't available on the Microsoft Store).  There were also incompatible drivers for things like our network printers & Bluetooth devices.  The latter issues are probably cleaned up a bit in Windows 11, but beware.

A good example of where this will likely lead is the recent behavior of Adobe regarding Adobe Acrobat Reader DC which is the subject of another post here.  They already have the ability to reach into your computer uninvited and steal paid-for software from you.

Enjoy the brave new world of computing and Happy New Year!


Comments (Page 4)
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on Jan 05, 2022


maintains that the opening up of backdoor access to multiple third parties is orders of magnitude greater in 11 than 10.

I have noticed that there are two different info sections as to what an app has access to in regards to App permissions. One for Windows 10 and one for windows 11. Mostly though with the apps I am looking at have permissions that are 100 percent identical, but since there are two different sections there must be certain third party apps that I am not looking at that are in fact more invasive. Either that or there is certain apps your IT guy really likes in regards to privacy that has yet to make its way on to Windows 11 and he is talking about the amount of apps. More apps = stronger possibility one of the competitors will be better suited for privacy. I can only speculate though.

Also note about 80 percent of the data skimming can be turned off in the security and privacy section in settings with a few more privacy settings that are usually able to be switched to off in the app itself. For example, neflix has access to your call history and texts on default, what the heck!! Just make sure you are looking at app permissions to see what you are getting yourself into. I am sure most people will over look this.


As an aside, he also tells us that third party software vendors are in some cases taking advantage of this 'progress' by refusing to provide backward compatible Win 11 drivers for a variety of applications

I do agree with Dave on this one. There are soo many third party vendors out there and many different views in regards to how to deal with this issue.

I think it is really sleazy the way Adobe went about their business. What they did in fact did take advantage of being allowed to go into your system files by turning off your access to this program just as your IT guy stated. Really bad business on that side. I will probably steer clear of them myself after hearing that.

I do like how stardock handles this. By trying to make better products that earn an upgrade. Unfortunately not everyone is going to do this, and therefore third party venders are going to be the main thing to watchout for as we enter the Windows 11 era of computing.

on Jan 05, 2022

I had two systems running overnight when there was a power outage, 1 was 7 Ult ...the other was 10 Pro.

Rebooted both....7 is fine...am using it here.

10 is in a perpetual 'recovery' loop...

"if" that's resolved it's destined to go to 11 because it has NEVER properly updated.

Ever.

on Jan 05, 2022

oh no not again... I hope that was your less used pc. I am guessing it is by the never updated part

on Jan 06, 2022

PhoenixRising1

oh no not again... I hope that was your less used pc. I am guessing it is by the never updated part

Terry's pc....trying to run 10 since it came out.  My 7 ult is on a system that was genuinely top of the line about 7 years ago .... and has mostly run 24/7/365 all that time since....

on Jan 06, 2022

WEI, FWIW .....7.9

on Jan 06, 2022

Still waiting for some new cables to arrive, but right now i am running 3 SSDs on my Rig, the first is my main go to SSD with the latest Build Win 11 Enterprise (local account with as much as i need removed from spying), the second is my Win 10 SSD with WB10 (same as above) and the third is my Experimental SSD on which i did all the testing of ExplorerPatcher settings, then changed this to a MSI Dragon Gaming Theme (Black and Vivid Red) with a clean Image of Win 11 Ent, also a local account with as many backdoors closed as needed. Until those cables arrive (should have been yesterday) i am running without any Blu-ray Writers (i have two), but has been a while since i did any X265 Encodes for the collection so no great loss.

Windows 11 Market share will increase as more and more peeps systems are updated, this is a new OS so not surprised as it's only been with us a few months, i think we will see it's ranking jump in a couple of stages. I am starting to see more and more Privacy Tools for Windows 11 hitting the net, more will follow as they always do.

 

Too bad to hear one of your systems has gone down jafo, were i live power outages never seem to be an issue, but i have always used surge protector Power leads anyway just in case to prevent that, pity you never used one of these , may have saved you some time in recovery and the headache, oh well you live and learn, something for the future maybe.

on Jan 06, 2022



Quoting PhoenixRising1,

oh no not again... I hope that was your less used pc. I am guessing it is by the never updated part



Terry's pc....trying to run 10 since it came out.  My 7 ult is on a system that was genuinely top of the line about 7 years ago .... and has mostly run 24/7/365 all that time since....

Now you just need to get Windows 11 installed on it and you will have one heck of a rig   

on Jan 06, 2022

naroon1

Too bad to hear one of your systems has gone down jafo, were i live power outages never seem to be an issue, but i have always used surge protector Power leads anyway just in case to prevent that, pity you never used one of these , may have saved you some time in recovery and the headache, oh well you live and learn, something for the future maybe.

Nah, I think it was coincidental re Terry's.  It's about 12 or 13 years old....and until its replacement was also on 24/7/365 ....and in dog years that makes it about 30 or 40 ...

My rig is on a UPS so is entirely isolated.  When it had 'issues' a year ago that was down to me inadvertently having the sound system amp plugged direct....not through the UPS.  It was 'telling' that one channel of the amp was fried....along with computer bits...

on Jan 06, 2022

Re the other...I have a True Image backup that's about 5 days old...so will return to that ....then maybe put 11 on so I can see first hand just how crap it is...

on Jan 07, 2022

So, how many times have you actually used Windows 11 jafo, or will this be your first time.

I am very surprised you are even bothering after your opinions in this Topic, i thought your mind was already made up, for you to say " so i can see first hand" makes me think you have never used it.

 

Gave up waiting for the Sata III cables to arrive so picked up a couple in town today, at least now i can have 3 SSDs and the Blu-ray Writer fully up and running a multi boot system, 2 drives running Win 11 customised using Themes, and the Original Windows 10 drive using WB10, i say using, but right now i seldom use the Win 10 OS, as i would and need to be current for work, but having it Multi Boot Available i can keep it updated easily. In time(when the cables actually get here) the Win 10 SSD will be the least used as i am doing a lot of testing of Win 10 themes that have been updated for beta testing on Win 11 machines, this is something i do not recommend for the novice user as they carry a warning using that immortal line  "May Brick Your System" so most peeps panic and do not even try beta testing. Seeing as we all love to customize our Windows OS, the line May Brick Your System is usually smoke and mirrors if you have a multi boot system, if anyone finds themselves in this situation, it is easy to re boot into your second OS and access and remove the offending theme files from the Windows folder. Once they are deleted, you can re boot into "The Bricked Drive" like nothing has happened, even with this Tip, Beta testing is not for everyone but can be very rewarding.

on Jan 07, 2022

Naroon,

I love the way you are willing to dive into new technology without fear. We definitely need people like that. Obviously Windows 11 is not perfect but if you listen to people on just this forum alone you will have a pretty good roadmap on how to fine tune it and make it into a really good OS.

I loved windows 95, my favorite of all time was when Windows xp came along, Windows 7 was also a really good OS. But all of those are just pieces of the time and era that we are no longer in. For better or worse Windows 11 is a reflection of the times we are in.

I do understand that not everyone is going to jump right into Windows 11 from windows 10. This is because we are still in the process of making Windows 11 better. Some people may be waiting for that to be achieved via more software and more tweaks being to make Windows 11 feel more like a more finished product. But, those of us that are on Windows 11 now will also be the ones that lead the way and be the voice of what needs changed.

on Jan 07, 2022

naroon1

So, how many times have you actually used Windows 11 jafo, or will this be your first time.

I am very surprised you are even bothering after your opinions in this Topic, i thought your mind was already made up, for you to say " so i can see first hand" makes me think you have never used it.


It'll be the first time....tho I do pick up 'second hand' just how iffy the MS direction is....as I've seen the 'fails' in a row....3 of them.  First time in their computing history they did 3 fails together....usually the next OS after a fail is a 'recovery'.

My history with computers [might have been simplistic] but it started on Fortran in the '60s.  You ain't lived till you've punched a punch card wrong.....

The most impressed I've ever been with any OS was QNX ...when it fitted on a single bootable floppy and was pretty much entirely virtual.  These days people will have no idea what a floppy is/was ....

on Jan 07, 2022

By 'necessity' I move my systems to the new OS releases directly and/or via VMs.  I've lost count of how many OS installs I currently have...but the 'telling' part is that currently every physical system is running 10 except my primary system.

That in itself is pretty damning judgement on what came after 7.

The 'secondary' system will be the one that gets 11 ....because it has NEVER succeeded to complete an update process in 10, not in 5 or so years.  12 months ago I said 'fuck you, Microsoft' and manually put a newer version on directly.  All was well for about a day....then it stopped completing updates.

There's only so many times you can 'try again later'.

If an OS cannot be upgraded without first trashing the current system totally to a format then it's actually not an 'up-grade' at all....

on Jan 07, 2022

DaveRI -

I get that there is an inevitable ratchet in one direction.  But in many cases, we're not talking trivial ancillary cost.  One case in particular our tech shared was of an architectural firm whose perfectly functioning application required a $24k upgrade to work in Win 11.

on Jan 07, 2022


DaveRI -

I get that there is an inevitable ratchet in one direction.  But in many cases, we're not talking trivial ancillary cost.  One case in particular our tech shared was of an architectural firm whose perfectly functioning application required a $24k upgrade to work in Win 11.

That'll be all of them.  Revit is insanely expensive.  My mate was paying about 5 grand a year just for the licence....and that's without the issues of new OS, new purchases, etc....

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