[Closed] W10 and browsers

Microsoft have to give alternatives to just their browsers- they were taken to court in the US for trying to lock out users internet experiences.

Just ignore them; they mean you no harm

I just object in principle to OSes updating without asking first…

Oh you'll love W10 then.

To be honest incremental / security updates are automatic, you can pause them for a time, but you'd can't stop them per-se.

Feature updates are optional, at least for a time.

I just object in principle to OSes updating without asking first…

Sorry, but your only fix will be to avoid Windows, it's getting worse.

Well I might block upgrades in my firewall and then just let it connect every once in a while....

For a new PC, it's worth running Fresh Start to clean out any bloatware the vendor might have installed.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026602/windows-10-give-your-pc-a-fresh-start

You can adjust the update settings to defer some things. Automatic security updates are generally a good thing. Really not a good idea to try to disable those.

Unless you're tied to windows you could put Ubuntu on a usb stick and try that.
The world is your oyster then.

There's a few things worth doing, if it's your home/ personal PC.

First is to go to the network properties for the network you're on, and set it as "metered connection". That at least gives you some control over when updates download - although the big ones will still eventually force themselves on you.

Second is to download "wushowhide" from Microsoft. When you run it you can see which updates are scheduled next, and opt to "hide" (ie prevent from downloading) them. Again, it's not perfect - the big seasonal updates will still eventually come, but you can at least prevent things like "updating" drivers (that worked absolutely fine and don't need to be updated with a non-functional piece of tat).

Chrome's not a bad browser per se, IMHO.

First is to go to the network properties for the network you’re on, and set it as “metered connection”. That at least gives you some control over when updates download – although the big ones will still eventually force themselves on you.

Second is to download “wushowhide” from Microsoft. When you run it you can see which updates are scheduled next, and opt to “hide” (ie prevent from downloading) them. Again, it’s not perfect – the big seasonal updates will still eventually come, but you can at least prevent things like “updating” drivers (that worked absolutely fine and don’t need to be updated with a non-functional piece of tat).

Good tips, thanks!

My Plan B was to find what IP/port updates come over and just block that in the router.

Chrome’s not a bad browser per se, IMHO.

So good, Edge now uses it's engine. I just like FF as you can install lots of plugins to remove Ads etc, block JS etc, which is a huge bonus.

Just keep it updated. Updates patch security holes, bug fixes etc. You won't find any useful Desktop OS that doesn't require updates.

I have Win 10 at work and it's never installed Chrome on there other than when I tried it out. I run FF ordinarily. Edge and IE in for those edge cases where something doesn't work in FF, but it's rare. I believe that MS only have to provide the means to try other browsers out. Once the OS has asked about it, you give your final answer and it goes away. Doesn't it?

You'll probably want to install Classic Shell too. Unless you're like, really strange...

sirromj
Subscriber
Just keep it updated. Updates patch security holes, bug fixes etc

Aye, don't get why you wouldn't update...

you can at least prevent things like “updating” drivers (that worked absolutely fine and don’t need to be updated with a non-functional piece of tat).

This being the problem in a 'production' environment when for example the shipping machine will no longer talk to the scales one morning and I'm on holiday... Now set to metered and manually updated when I've got time to check everything will still works.

IMHO the primary reason for updates is to give the suppliers a method to monetize their software, updates seem to be 10% important security and 90% shiz. Security concerns means we have to put up with it.

You’ll probably want to install Classic Shell too. Unless you’re like, really strange…

I have thought about it, although they seem to have toned down the crappy UI a bit since I last looked at W10, the whole idiot tile thing seems much less prevalent now; I just removed all the tiles and it seems to have vanished. Still much prefer W7 to W10 and XP to W7. Come to think of it, I was quite happy with W95. 3.1 was a bit duff though..

Still running Office 2010 mind as I have various plugins only available in 32 bit guise...

Still running Office 2010 mind as I have various plugins only available in 32 bit guise…

Last time I installed Office 365, you could choose between 32 and 64 bit versions.

I have a longer answer to this discussion, but it's gone 2am and I'm going to bed. The shorter answer is that between the terrifically shit advice you've been given thus far and your own obstinance I rather think that your answer here is Linux.

No no to most advice above, they are just making things worse for future.
W10 usually just fine without any tinkering, just change nice background image to desktop, set your shortcuts taskbar and start using the thing for something useful.

IMHO the primary reason for updates is to give the suppliers a method to monetize their software, updates seem to be 10% important security and 90% shiz. Security concerns means we have to put up with it.

Eh? You know MS updates are free right? Are you getting confused with DLCs for games? Updates exist as software is generally released when it's "good enough" rather than "perfect" as otherwise it would never get released. Added to that new features are thought of or security vulnerabilities exposed. Monetisation has little if anything to do with it

I can't say I've experienced Edge or Chrome re-installing themselves but could imagine Edge at least would worm it's way back on as part of a major update. That said Edge, now it uses the Chromium engine, is a decent browser - doesn't hurt to have a couple of browser options even if you prefer Firefox.

If you really wanted to disable Windows Updates I'd probably create a dummy local hosts file entry for the URLs it uses (you can google them), easier than trying to port block on a firewall. For a home use PC though I really don't see why you'd ever want to. For a business use PC if it's business-critical and you have a test PC of the same spec. then fair enough stop automatic updates on the main PC and test them on the test PC first to make sure it doesn't cripple it but in reality unless you have an IT department you're probably not going to bother with doing that.

You’ll probably want to install Classic Shell too. Unless you’re like, really strange…

More great advice, between running no updates and installing software that has had no active development in 2 and a half years that box will be trashed in no time.

OP, am I reading it correctly that you are using this machine to run proprietary industrial software? If so it should really be down to your site IT to sort this out. If you are the site IT I suggest getting someone else to do it for you. If you're not running any such software I can assure you nothing will break, in however many years of running W10 I've never had to reinstall and only had one issue that was connected to a failed install which meant I couldn't get the latest version.

Did you actually uninstall Chrome or did you just delete the taskbar icon?

Finally resolved this, they have services running in the background which don't get uninstalled when you uninstall the App. These services automatically re-install the latest version.

So the fix is Control Panel -> Administration Tools -> Services

and then set the processes to 'Disabled':

Microsoft Edge Update Service (2 processes)
Google Update Service (2 processes)

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Jesus christ. Just stop it.

People complain about Windows updates and half the time it's because they've made a right pigs' bladder of it by spending half their life trying to prevent Windows from doing its own maintenance.

Security updates are a very good thing. Every major malware outbreak in, well, forever could have been prevented if people installed patches. When WannaCry took out, amongst many others, half of the NHS the patch which would have prevented it had been out for a month.

Feature updates are a good thing. Why would you not want more features? If your car manufacturer popped a free satnav in the post, would you be pulling your face because you didn't ask for it?

Driver updates are a good thing. Bug fixes, performance enhancements, security and feature improvements again.

And yes, sure, sometimes something screws up. That's the nature of PCs, there's so much disparate hardware out there made by hundreds if not thousands of different companies that it's frankly amazing that it all works at all. But the risk inherent in patching is far, far outweighed by the risk of not doing so.

If you're absolutely paranoid about some weird proprietary software you're running on there breaking then the best thing you can do is take it off the network completely.

Jesus christ. Just stop it.

Pretty much everything below this desperate plea.

Except Features Updates. They should at least be optional. I'm fine with the capabilities of my current OS and the way it runs on my hardware, I don't want it bloated with more and more extraneous shite which I don't need and won't use and which will only add to the mass of bits and bobs which will need updating in the future.

I don’t want it bloated with more and more extraneous shite which I don’t need and won’t use and which will only add to the mass of bits and bobs which will need updating in the future.

Exactly how I feel about Edge and Chrome, never going to use them, don't want them and hence uninstalled them.....

Have you though.

The Edge update thing I believe is specifically for the new Chromium-powered Edge. In knobbling it and uninstalling have you in fact reverted it to the old Edge? Is it's foundations still kicking around even if it's no longer immediately visible? Something that, perhaps, is never going to be patched as it's considered obsolete? Is that desirable?

In killing the Google update that stops auto-update on all Google products, not just Chrome. Have you got other Google products or apps installed?

Are you sure? I'm not.

This is the problem with following random advice and web articles. You don't know what else you might be impacting.

If you can't properly and reliably uninstall a component then you're almost certainly better off with the latest version of something you don't use over an old version of something you don't use. Gone are the days of PCs with 4MB of RAM gasping for resources and paging madly to disk every time you try to open a window.

(Incidentally, uninstalling Chrome should, well, uninstall Chrome. I've never seen the behaviour you describe.)