Rick, yes, my gobsmack moment is why did everyone just accept win10 showed down their throats like a smelly rapey cock, free or paid, whatever ?

Steam works fine on Windows 7

A lot of people gave Windows 8 a skip, and Vista etc... What the fuck happened? 

http://www.pcmag.com/news/351171/microsoft-targets-chrome-users-with-windows-10-pop-up-ad

Some /. cuts -

BSD: Free as in Speech
Linux: Free as in Beer
Windows 10: Free as in Herpes

Hey all you Slashdotters, President Pussy-Grabber here,
I think Windows 10 is awesome! It walks right up to your computer and grabs it by the pussy, and I think that'll make computers Great Again! You should all stop using that 'linux' thing you all keep jabbering on about and just use this instead!

I mean, yeah... Chrome and Firefox do the same thing, but coming from the OS, that's pretty rough. 

I am not surprised MS is pulling this shit, and it will probably work for most simple users out there.

It's very very intrusive and will make users very not happy believe you me. 

Microsoft have this thing where they get a product to a stage where it's "good enough" and then there's no compelling reason to upgrade.

Typically what happens then is hardware, not software, ends up driving it forward.

We all saw it with XP. XP was "good enough" for such a long time and it was only when we hit 32-bit limits that we needed to move on. Vista was shit but it had 64-bit and better multi-CPU support. 7 is almost "good enough"; the main thing it's lacking in terms of hardware support is good SSD support. 8 and 10 are just flat-out better with SSDs.

Microsoft are pushing 10 down your throat because they don't want a repeat of what happened with XP where people stick with an OS version for 10+ years because that version is "good enough". Rather than give compelling reasons to upgrade they're taking the choice away. They'd be better doing it the other way round but that leopard ain't gonna change it's spots. 

Designed as the last operating system?

We're probably going to be sticking with it for a while 

Windows 10 is, in theory, supposed to be the last "version" of Windows. Microsoft has done many things recently to try and force PC users to switch to it.

It is well known that Windows 10 is basically spyware. This can be controlled somewhat by changing settings, but not completely, and the settings have been known to revert to defaults automatically in many cases.

Fortunately Windows 10, at this point, is easily avoidable and unnecessary. Much of what average people do with PCs is now web driven and runs in a browser. The OS is not that important and Linux can do this job as well as, if not better than, Windows.

Gaming is one of the areas where Linux is not so great. DX12 does not seem to be catching on at this point though, so Windows 7 still works well for gaming.

Steam is almost a necessity for gaming these days and it does a fair amount of spying also. Even when used in "offline mode" it is not really offline.

For right now, I have not seen a way to avoid Microsoft's garbage completely, so I have one PC for gaming with Windows 7 installed. And Steam. I use an Icy Dock in that computer, when not needed for games I can shutdown switch SSDs and reboot Microsoft-free and Steam-free in less than 2 minutes. 

HTH. 

Vista also worked fine for a lot of people. 

About windows 10 spying than I am. Most of the time I am not even thinking about it 

to switch from, say, win7 to win10? 

I guess. 

If you find a game that is DX12 only, or can use DX12 and is greatly improved by it, then Windows 10 is your only choice.

There are some non-game related improvements, but for me, those are far out-weighed by the many drawbacks. Microsoft has just gone too far into areas where no operating system belongs.

This is a polarizing issue, many people just don't care. The logic is often along the lines of "everybody does it", "that's just the way it is these days", etc. Some say "I have nothing to hide, my life is an open book" or some other such nonsense. I am firmly in the opposite camp, and if anyone has a choice and asks, then I will always recommend against Windows 10.

Of course, I am a grumpy old man, and get off my lawn is a way of life these days.

If you have any choice, then you should at least do a little research so that you know what you're getting into when you agree to Microsoft's privacy policy and service agreement. 

That Microsoft basically released an OS that is clearly adware, malware, spyware and out-of-your-control-ware TRICKING millions into upgrading and yet... so many are complacent about this.

If things don't change, Win7 will be my last MS OS even if that means any future PC gaming, on Windows, is sacrificed.

And now they have it so if you want the newest CPU's from AMD and Intel, they to are tied to Win10. Linux is fine though. 

I didn't even mention about how they use your bandwidth to deliver updates to other PC's! This all should have been illegal on so many fronts, seriously.

Personal Computer, I think not. Not with Win10. 

It's a huge breach of privacy and duty... which i'm guessing they are only allowed to do, because the win10 spyware is shared with the US government. 

I have windows 10, and I use SpyBot Anti-Beacon which automatically turns off any telemetry in windows 10. I havent any issues otherwise, yet i occasionally get a *suggested notification on the start menu of apps to get from the app store. Meh, i'm a sheep. :| 

Apparently Kaby Lake doesn't run Windows 7, for ***reasons***. I'm getting a new laptop soon, so hopefully I'll be able to prove that for myself. I'm hoping it'll at least run in a VM...

Seriously, the bigger your market share, the worse a company you become... Intel, Nvidia, Apple...

Microsoft was just always sketchy. 

I don't really see how a 3rd party application would be able to prevent the OS from doing as it pleases, or how you would even know if it was actually working. It sounds good though. 

Isn't spybot pretty much just a virus at this point? I thought it died, got resurrected as "2.0" and turned out to be utter trash. That's what google says, anyway. 

Works by turning off the telemetry settings via the Windows registry. Which Windows update can and does turn them back on whenever it sees fit.

A better solution is run Linux or Windows 7. 

all u have to do each update is press a button to turn off/updae the settings.

Fear, its a penis that wants to take over your dick.. 

 

For some reason I find it hard to believe that changing a few settings actually stops Microsoft from spying and sniffing around in your system.

I figure those settings are mostly just for show. Something to give you a safe, cozy, secure feeling that you've thwarted their attempts to invade your privacy.

The reality is, once you install Windows 10, they own your computer, not you. 

If you're really worried that a software provider is doing things that they claim they are not doing and don't appear to be doing, then there's no way you'll ever be secure/happy with any desktop or phone OS. Except maybe a Linux distro that you build yourself. 

if it really bothers you, then just make router rules to block external IPs you don't like.