Microsoft does u-turn on tricky Windows 10 upgrade popup

[Corky34]

Edit: Looks like I posted at the same time as Corky. But was Windows prior to 10 a loss leader? Just by sheer number of OEM / bought copies out there since Win95, I would have thought that it was a cash cow. Prior to that Win7 early adopter offer and perhaps some of the education discount and the likes, Windows was never super "cheap". I am sure that the development cost is massive too, but I would be surprised if the quantity sold did not allow for a decent profit by the time they had a comfortable majority of the market share..

(Has not bothered looking up as I am typing this on a phone)

TBH I've not looked at the exact figures throughout the years but in an article by Ed Bott he claimed OEM & consumer sales have never been a big earner for Microsoft, as much as i don't like to give a shill like Mr Bott air time in that instance i think he was largely correct, the rest of the article is mostly BS but when he makes the point that OEM & consumer sales have always been a tiny part of Microsoft's revenues i think he was mostly correct.

In hind sight me calling Windows a loss leader was rhetoric on my part, maybe a better choice of words would have been to say that the revenue from Windows sales to OEM and consumers has been falling over the years, apologies.

[TooNice]

Hmm, but there is no lack of businesses / governments running Windows systems. Come to think of it, Win10, from the little I know about it, sounds really inappropriate in those environments..

Also, from a consumer perspective, it sounds like it would be more work to do a clean install in the sense that there will be more applications to install depending on how barebone it is. I don't like bloat so normally the less bloat the better but I really wonder how barebone it is.

[kalniel]

Hmm, but there is no lack of businesses / governments running Windows systems. Come to think of it, Win10, from the little I know about it, sounds really inappropriate in those environments..

The business editions of win 10 are a bit different. The store type stuff and all the privacy munching can be disabled by group policy so it's a much more traditional OS experience. On the other hand, they are priced accordingly.

[jimbouk]

If you get Windows 10 Pro (or in a corporate environment) you can disable lots of the built in and normally difficult to remove apps/functionality view group policies. On the home edition you need powershell scripts and registry hacks to clean up the things you don't want.

I used this link to clean up nearly everything: http://www.howtogeek.com/224798/how-...einstall-them/

Not sure how to stop them appearing, I'm hoping uninstalling the Windows Store will have done the trick.

[Corky34]

Just for fun i used Microsoft License Advisor (needs IE) to get a quote, maybe I've not chosen the cheapest solution as i got a bit confused by what the differences were between all the options but i think an Open License to use Windows 10 on 250 computers would cost around £50 per year per device, in essence it's like buying a new version of Windows every two and a bit years.

[SineWave]

Watching the drama unfold from aside is fun. I've been using Debian since 3 years ago and it feels great, and a lot of fun. No worries, just a sense of freedom and bliss. Using and changing different distributions, different desktop environments and themes, is also nothing but fun. You can't do this with Windows any more. Not in an easy manner.

I wish you all to have a great day using W10! Keep trying to cope with what MS shoves upon you. I simply gave up 3 years ago, and there's no way back now that I've tasted a very different flavour of OS. Linux is the future anyway, as no operating system that everybody uses should be anyone's property, the least a firm from the USA.

Cheers! \m/

[ik9000]

https://www.grc.com/never10.htm

sorted.

is that legit? Sounds too good to be true!

[azrael-]

is that legit? Sounds too good to be true!

Steve Gibson is a bit like the US version of Saracen...

And yes, he and his tools are legit. And very appreciated.

[Saracen]

Steve Gibson is a bit like the US version of Saracen...

And yes, he and his tools are legit. And very appreciated.

Not really, though. I have a programming background, but not low-level stuff like Steve.

I did have quite a a few email chats with him a few (more than a few, now that I think about it) years ago. Very helpful bloke.

I know some people are sceptical about some of his tools, but I've had several occasions when his disk tools have rescued a situation nothing else would touch. For my money, he's absolutely legit.

[g8ina]

Same here, I really rate SG, some of his older Windoze fixes were really flippin useful.