Windows 10 Collusion complaint / class act

[Doyle Phillips]

Windows 10 Collusion complaint / class act

After installing Windows 10, a number of previously serviceable
applications/programs no longer work.

For example, CorelDraw X6 now requires an $87.00 upgrade.

I believe that any and all programs that Windows 10 makes
obsolete should be replaced FREE by the vendor. Otherwise,
one might think that Corel and Microsoft colluded or conspired
to make a bundle of cash off the backs of consumers.

If you please, register your agreement at:

https://complaints.consumer-action.org/f...lish-form/

[DonJuane]

The thing is "of course they did". The bottom line is that the consumer has given up and there's no such thing as people protesting over what corporate entities are doing any longer. I don't know if everyone got a lobotomy, lost their sense of direction, simply just got too busy and tired or are too lazy to fight any longer. The things Microsoft does today would have had them at the top of the anti-trust list 10-20 years ago but today it no longer matters. The things Google does today would have them also at the top of the list 10 years ago. Corporations own this country and the consumer doesn't care as long as the cable and smart phone bill gets paid, they're simply "good to go".

[Victor David]

Whatever you think of corporate behavior, you need to factor in technical considerations in the software industry.

CorelDraw X6 came out 3 years before Windows 10. You can’t expect developers to future proof everything. They weren’t programming for Windows 10 because it simply didn’t exist at the time.

If someone painted your two story house and years later you added another floor, I doubt you’d think they owed you more labor and paint for free.

Maybe not the greatest analogy, but what you’re experiencing with your computer is a natural result of upgrade madness among tech companies. They don’t need to collude, simply crank out new versions of everything as fast as possible.

Still, look before you leap. Programs specify which operating systems they’re compatible with.

[DonJuane]

By the same token someone doesn't like it when their house is painted and someone comes along and tells them the color no longer is approved for the neighborhood and they must re-paint. Windows 10 is a ridiculous re-facing for the same old Windows NT background that has simply been resurfaced and sold again over and over for several decades. The only reason that Windows 10 came to pass and was forced down everyone's throat is that Microsoft had made too good a product with Windows 7 and 10 wouldn't sell without their strong-arm technique to force down everyone's throats. Windows 8 and 8.1 were complete jokes and proved this because everyone back-leveled to Windows 7 even if they had to pay a hundred bucks. Microsoft saw that 10 was also destined to fail so they lobbied to force Windows 7 off the market and strong-arm vendors to no longer provide Windows 7 drivers. And if anyone can't see this, then they don't know much about this operating system.

All Windows 10 offers is more "services" that I can purchase and that I have no desire for, plus a stupid smart-phone looking interface that I have to work hard to get around to find what I am familiar with and where I can "get back to business". I personally don't want a desktop that looks like a smart phone because I go to my desktop as often as possible because a smart phone is simply inadequate for things that I do a lot, such as mapping, video watching, video editing, photo editing etc.

I think Doyle's concern is what matches mine and that is you cannot keep Windows 7 without eventually being forced off of it. There are a few things working against you and first is the browsers that constantly update and demand more horsepower whether you want them to or not. Use an old version and you are forced off the network with nothing working any longer, upgrade and you need a new computer every 3 years because the browser slows it down too much. The other factor is antivirus which can take up to 50% of computer power and that grows in size greatly to force you on to larger systems as well. You can get around the antivirus scheme by just turning it off, adding a phenomenal backup system like Acronis and have constant backups, then restore from yesterday when a virus hits. If you keep the backup encrypted, then the thing like ransomware can't touch the backups if they are hidden Acronis volumes. Still the bottom line is you don't have the option to stay with the old Windows 7 and I think that is the concern that has been presented, that we all are forced to pay for something we don't really want or need.

[Victor David]

I agree with you about Windows 10. It's horrible.

However, the idea that you must upgrade from Windows 7 is not true. I'm still using Win7. It's a matter of educating yourself regarding the tech you use. There's lots of information and resources out there. When Win10 was on the horizon, I took time to ensure that I would not be part of a forced upgrade. Microsoft does want to force things on you, true. But you're not obliged to go along.

[Doyle Phillips]

Although it will be futile to register your ire, Better Business Bureau has a fairly easy way to protest online.
https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/...et-started

Lord Microsoft will not be amused but, secure inside high walls of Capital, will need not act.

[DonJuane]

Victor David - I do agree that you do not have to upgrade if you don't want to, but this assumes a) you don't use a browser and b) you don't use anti-virus and c) your hardware will never fail.

In fact I have a 10" Windows 7 laptop that I use as a hand-held Nikon DSLR control. A few years back it had actually stopped working to the point that each task was taking 5 minutes to load when it used to take 30 seconds. I removed the AVG anti-virus and the speed returned to again make the device usable. As I loaded the multiple browser updates and security patches over the years, the browser also became too slow and sluggish to use, taking sometimes several minute to navigate from screen to screen. So technically I do use it without a browser and without antivirus and therefore I am not forced to upgrade as long as the hardware holds out. When the hardware fails, I will be forced to upgrade this unit too and Windows 10 devices will be all that are available unless I buy a used device on eBay which I will assume there is a strong possibility will also fail shortly after.

The forcing of Windows 10 is due to the forced increased demands of software we must use and not our old standbys that remain good enough for us. For example I use a very old version of Corel (11) that is fine for my skill-set. I make posters and banners with it and as I age I'm never going to need some of these contrived new improvements that really don't affect me. Same for photoshop, there is a set of features and I can't seem to escape using the same old techniques even when I've tried newer versions. So I am set with my poster making, photo editing and occasional Premiere video editing. Well speeding up the video editing would be nice but not worth a few grand to make it happen.

Still the thing I can't control first of all is the browser. Don't upgrade it and more and more websites start flagging features you can't use because you need to upgrade. I personally rate the browser as 90% or more of my daily computer activity. I also have to use the anti-virus for the most part unless I want to lug around a ton of external drives to do my backups. Again I can't stay back-level or the device becomes more and more open to the daily plethora of attackers and new and more clever ways they use to get into my machine. And traveling and security wise, no thanks to any cloud backups especially with my being on metered cell data 50% or more of the time. And with each update of the browser as it becomes more sophisticated and as the anti-virus becomes more powerful, yes you do have to keep replacing the hardware if you use either a browser or anti-virus and I would imagine that a majority of computer users use both of these exponentially growing pieces of software so in effect, yes you are forced to constantly upgrade if retaining a reasonable working speed is of importance. If you can wait for 3 minutes or so for a browser screen after paging forward or can walk away from the system while it takes 2-3 hours to scan for viruses, or wait for 15-30 minutes for it to boot up, well then you may very well be able to continue to use what you have and not need to upgrade.

[DonJuane]

What I do with new Windows 10 systems is first of all re-instate the administrator account. I get tired of being asked "are you sure you want this program to run" with every app I start and told "you need admin privileges to run that". Then I kill the user account I was on. Then I follow online guides to restore the Quick Launch bar, unpin every program from the task bar, set the task bar to where programs are only stacked if the task bar is full. Then I load "Classic Shell" to give me a Windows 7 desktop. Then I add the Sphinx windows 10 firewall control to keep apps from sending my data back by phoning home, then I add Windows anti-telemetry software O&O Shutup 10, W10Privacy and an old version of Spybot Anti-Beacon distributed before they started charging for it. I then add favorite apps like free versions of WinZip, WinRAR, Irfanview, VLCplayer, (reluctantly AVG where I set off all feedback channels and AVG reporting from my system activity to them) add Malwarebytes for periodic browser invasion checking, startup management software Autoruns where I mange disabling phontom start-ups of software "fast launch" and other unwanted auto-starts, icon save/restore DesktopOK, then I add Firefox with plug-ins including Ad-block+, Behind the Overlay, Disable Autoplay, Tab session manager, Facebook Purity, then I add Palemoon with all plug-ins including AdBlock Latitude, Age unlimiter for Youtube, Cookie Manager, Dismiss the Overlay, Flash Stopper, Greesemonkey, Facebook Purity, Session manager. I also add free apps such as Easeus Partition Manager, ConText for Linux file editing, PC Navigator 18 using the free OpenMap suite and I have a GPS USB receiver for this, old corporate version of MS Office I own that works fine for my needs, free Exact Audio CD ripper, ImgBurn to burn CD/DVDs, DVDFab to backup DVDs, Mp3Tag MP3 tag editor for music collection eding, Libre office, Kodi streaming TV app and many more. It's hard to tell my desktop for a Windows 7 one. I also go through many many iterations of killing and disabling all the apps that are on the original Windows 10 desktop and assigning other default apps away from these such as assigning default email client to the old MS Office version that I continue to use, assign default browser to (currently) Palemoon which I use instead of Firefox once Firefox got taken over and bloated, avoid all Chrome and Google tools as Google siphons every aspect of our personal lives and uses it to market, use my own email server to avoid anything Google, and others but this is just a basic guide to get you started with a friendly Window 10 computer that looks like a Windows 7. Enjoy!

[roberb7]

This all sounds like job security for techies. I say that it's money well spent.
I'll add one more thing to the long list of stuff DonJuane gave us. Windows 10 contains spyware, and you should disable it.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/30...ws-10.html
It sounds like it would be a lot easier to just install Linux instead.