Should you use one finger for banking, and a different one for social media?

It's nothing new, I've been using one finger for Windows for some time now.

I don't know if there is any reality to this report, but the idea is certainly unpleasant:

http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/windows-10-s-fall-update-removes-user-installed-applications-without-asking.htm

Quote

Windows 10 users are reporting that programs they've installed have disappeared (apparently uninstalled) with the latest Windows 10 Fall update, including one case where the software that AMD's graphics cards depend on (AMD Catalyst Control Center) was uninstalled and replaced with Windows 10 graphics card drivers. The two other programs that have been mentioned as being uninstalled are CPU-Z and Speccy.

Wandering back to this for a bit, I did notice a bunch of other stuff that had quietly gone missing after the last upgrade. I have a group of small no install utilities I've always kept in C:\Program Files\Mini-Tools really just to keep root C cleaner since they had to go somewhere, and I didn't want them to be scattered about. When I went looking for one of them this weekend, I discovered that the entire Mini-Tools folder was missing/had been skipped during the upgrade. It was still retrievably in the Windows.old folder, but why the upgrade took it upon itself to deem that unworthy of migration is rather perplexing.


Now here's the weird part ... While both are configured identically, my office computer moved the Mini-Tools folder during the upgrade that my home computer skipped.

hehe - When I said configured identically, I meant damn near an exact copy.

Both machines:
Use identical security software
Are HP Z400 series workstations
Were Originally Clean loaded with 10 pro
Are 2012 R2 Domain members with tight security
with only minor variations have the same software installed

Hell, the update was even done on the same day.

I can hear everyone singing The Stones "Hey!  You!  Get me offa' this cloud!" 

MS is determined to drag your ass kicking and screaming to the cloud.  Rainy days lie ahead.

I suspect that the mistake we all make is to let Windows dictate to us that we put any program files that we wished to control, into either:

    C:\Program Files\, or
    C:\Program Files (x86)\


Recognising years back that the Windows OS did and probably always would take a somewhat proprietary control over those folders, I had always maintained a directory C:\UTIL\ which contains catalogued "type" directories (e.g. C:\UTIL\PIM\Infoselect) holding all of the no-install and installed programs that I use that are not Microsoft software (e.g., including FARR and all its associated plugins, Autohotkey, Firefox, and InfoSelect), with the sole exceptions being any program which:

    (a) seemed to have a dumb "no options" installation proggie that insisted on everything being installed into its own special explicit directory (e.g., Google Chrome Canary wants to be in C:\Users\UserID\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome SxS\Application\), or
    (b) had to install only in the usual explicit proggie directory (i.e., C:\Program Files\, or C:\Program Files (x86)\), or
    (c) which could not  work properly if you moved it out of any of those explicit directories once it had been installed there.


This means that when I want to I migrate to another computer, I simply port the C:\UTIL\ directory across to the new computer, and pretty soon I have most of the proggies I can't live without, running on the new computer.

I go a step further by putting that special self-created folder that I install my programs into, on a different partition than the OS.

Should there ever be an issue with the OS, where it is unbootable, and there is a need to format and reinstall the OS to get things running again, all my program files are safe, not on the same partition as the OS, and in most cases I just need to run them all once and reinsert my license key. A few apps might need to be reinstalled, but for the most part the whole process of getting back up & running is a lot shorter if you don't have to reinstall everything.

And yes, setting up a new system is much faster and easier when all you have to do is copy that folder over and run everything once to insert the license key and identify the handful of apps that need to actually be installed first.

I have even cut down on the number of those by identifying why some of them have to be installed, and including a fixit subfolder with a .reg file, instructions, and/or special files that need to go in the system folder to make it work. (this is also good for repairing apps when something goes wrong)

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Is this the latest update of Windows 10?

And hot off the presses it appears to be too. My last check for updates - sporting build number 10586.17 - which was late yesterday came up zero. I just checked this morning and there was 4 updates that after a reboot gave me the same .29 build number.

So "Patch Tuesday" is still on perhaps?

Between Iain and App "taking front runner" and I'm sure bunches of the other smart gang here have done variants on all that strategy. I've done a limited variant of Iain's.

- Let programs install into C/Programs even if they offer options to go somewhere else, because then with my poor memory when I need to go look for something, I can do a Directory Read on C/Progs and save it as a text file and it has (most) of the installed files.

- "Option C". Even with an option to install somewhere else, it feels like there's less risk of the programmer doing a "Last Line" type goof of not fixing a bug when you put it somewhere that suddenly doesn't parse for random reasons.

- The non-install programs (with like only a couple exceptions) go somewhere into C/docs/user/Desktop/Somewhere, so with the same idea, when I copy my Desktop Down over, that carries all the non-install (and I'm starting to get convinced by Portable if available!) onto backup and/or new comps.

- Happy Accident remove cruft? This dear ol' workhorse has in Steve Austin's words "given me everything it's got until it's starting to break down bit by bit in every way", and that includes a lot of surveys/studies/trials, so my C/Progs is a disaster of legacy mess. So with a little bit of study, I can look over say the thirty programs I remotely think I'll need and leave the other 300 (Sparta!!!) to wither away.


Plus it's far from clear which devs esp single or small teams have fully grasped the strange things going on in Win 10. So that may need some time to jell.

And hot off the presses it appears to be too. My last check for updates - sporting build number 10586.17 - which was late yesterday came up zero. I just checked this morning and there was 4 updates that after a reboot gave me the same .29 build number.So "Patch Tuesday" is still on perhaps?

I still can't use IE here because of script problems, Edge still can't create a shortcut. I guess I am going to have to bitch about it to Microsoft and hope other people support that.

@Stoic:
WMP is your media player of choice? Never would have guessed. As you are a biker I would surely thought that you would like the following player best: MPH (Media Player Hometheater)  but you decided to go for WiMP (Windows integrated Media Player)

More seriously, MPH has the look of Windows Media Player version 6.4 (Windows ME/Windows 2000 era), but comes with all the latest and greatest to play whatever video/audio you want. If you want lots of controls and options, PotPlayer and VideoLAN are good players as well. There are lots of other players, but as all my needs are met with this set I didn't look at any other players anymore.   

Quote from: Shades on December 13, 2015, 06:48 PM

If you want lots of controls and options, PotPlayer and VideoLAN are good players as well.

Honestly, I don't. All I want is quick, fast simple done - done is a beautiful thing...I love being done. Especially in an industry where everything invariably turns into an epic saga of some - generally horrific - kind.

When I feel like -(vegetating)- watching a video, I don't want to be faced with the dashboard of the space shuttle. I just want play, volume, and pause incase I need to take a leak if the vid goes for awhile. Now granted I'm not really into media stuff, but WMP augmented with the Shark007 codec pack (worked for XP/Vista/7/8.x - Haven't tried it on 10) plays damn near anything I've ever come across. So that's what I use.

Come to think of it...I did have BS Player installed on the old machine for some reason that I don't recall. It was actually rather nice IIRC.

And that's why I love VLC. I set it as the default player so that when I double click a video file, it just opens it and plays it. No need to install codecs or any other fussing around. It just works. If the dashboard of it looks like the space shuttle, I wouldn't know. All I know is the window that pops open to play a video file is nice & simple and does what it is supposed to do.

And for audio, I use Trout. (which can also play just the audio of MP4 video files, in case I just want to listen instead of watching them, as I most often would do with music videos.)

My Win 10-64 update occurred the other day.
The OS says it is now:

• Windows 10 Pro
• Version 1511
• Build 10586.0

After it had all installed and restarted several times, it couldn't do a proper restart and had also been crashing explorer and the Classic Start Menu. So I manually stopped it (all power off for 30 seconds) and started it, whereafter it seemed to behave itself.   

The latest v.1511 update.

Hmm, mine is stuck at:


With no pending updates, wouldn't have thought there'd be that much difference between Home & Pro.

You probably didn't know there is a 32-bit Win10.

I have a netbook with Win10 Pro x86 on it ... and it's stuck at v10.0 Build 10240 with no pending updates.  Think I'll have to reinstall that.

Should I tell Microsoft or ImgBurn about this or both?

ImgBurn author hasn't updated the program since 2013 when Win8 was the latest version, so all the program knows is that the OS is at least Win8.

BTW, 2.5.8.0 is the latest version of ImgBurn.