Cortana expelled from Windows 10's new school editions Microsoft has announced two new cuts of Windows 10, for schools. “Windows 10 Pro Education” and “Windows 10 Education” have been “designed for the unique needs of K-12 institutions.” That means Microsoft's voice assistant, Cortana, has been expelled. Kids will therefore be spared the brave new world of context-aware search and …
"Errr. Take courses at a college or university [and verify if a student, you met the requirements]."
Perhaps you missed these lines:
“Windows 10 Pro Education” and “Windows 10 Education” have been “designed for the unique needs of K-12 institutions.”
“ … to all K-12 customers as it provides the most complete and secure edition for education environments.”
Right up until you need an application from the store and you can't add it, so you have to go through the hassle of downloading, installing and maintaining it, and then find out that it can't work without the store and the developer will not bother with a non-store version since it's not designed for enterprise/education use and they don't want to violate that.
... and the sum total of applications from the MS store I want or need is:
(drum roll)
none whatsoever
Of course, it is already possible to excise all this rubbish, including the store itself - but it is nice of Microsoft to finally acknowledge that windows store is a gimmick, and is not needed to either do your work or learn something new.
Not as easy as it seems. Getting rid of annoying icons is just the 1st step. Out of sight is not out of mind and W10 is truly a privacy minefield. I'd done my job by servicing the install.wim image, using settings app, group policy, task scheduler, firewall, powers shell scripts (floating over the web), hosts file (of dubious results), router rules (moving target and home boxes are not really meant for heavy filtering), registry and then I realized that something was still not right. There are some funky restricted firewall rules available only via registry - if someone can enlighten why MS has been cramming more and more into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\RestrictedServices\Configurable\System (really pain to manage outside of usual GUI, exporting to .reg file helps;). Also, with proliferation of "crApps" (tm) importing firewall rules is no longer trivial (with unique SIDs one is better of with dumping registry keys as exported rules are - in usual MS fashion - a binary mess).
Also, what is that binary key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\{7746D80F-97E0-4E26-9543-26B41FC22F79} that MS does not like the user to access (it can be with extra hassle;)?
Sorry, K-12 education? Is that like K9, but for kids?
Personally I would not want Microsoft anywhere near the educational system again. I saw what they did in the UK: cheap prices to lure them in (despite us predicting what would happen they all went for it like teenagers hoping to score a cheap fix) and lo, as soon as everyone was committed the prices went up. Bill Gates even got knighted for that scam (well, the ruse was that he gave some of the loot back to one place so he could have his name on a building, but we all knew where the money was taken from).
I especially don't want Microsoft near the educational system because some idiots have decided that teaching "IT skills" means telling kids how to use Microsoft applications instead of the principles underneath them, like spreadsheets in general and the use of styles in word processors.
Frying pan to Fire.
They should be using Linux and Libre Office. Certainly Linux Mint + Mate + Wine + Redmond Theme is maybe a little poorer than XP, still, but it's MILES better than Vista, Win8 or Win10 for Education.
Then there would also be more money to spend on teaching. Maybe 20 years ago there was some argument to have Apple or MS rather than Linux/UNIX for Education, not now. Google, MS, Apple and Amazon are trojan horses in Education.
They should be using Linux and Libre Office. Certainly Linux Mint + Mate + Wine + Redmond Theme is maybe a little poorer than XP, still, but it's MILES better than Vista, Win8 or Win10 for Education.
Hah! Who do you think is responsible for setting those standards? Just before one T Blair came to power, the UK embarked on a project to establish open standards throughout the whole government. The moment T Blair walked in, Gates & friends were invited to take over by means of a mass infestation of consulting, and the first thing they did was scrap the idea of open standards that would promote interoperability, it all had to become Microsoft, and that included education. They're *still* busy undoing the damage, but there are unfortunately few people left who have both the required oversight and power to do this fast. Get a techie and they'll drown in the politics, get politicians and they'll get played in weeks through their lack of knowledge (not all of them are self interested idiots, but they too don't quite know who to trust).
Microsoft software already supported most of the open standards that were proposed! And it worked.
No it didn't, the Government Gateway being a prime example. By the way, if you want a clear idea of what Microsoft does with an open standard, just check how they butchered Kerberos.
"They should be using Linux and Libre Office. Certainly Linux Mint + Mate + Wine + Redmond "
You'd think that, and I'd love it to be possible, but the entire ecosystem of educational software is all based around Windows. There may even be schools which are non-MS seats of learning, but at primary school level it's all about the "tool" and the ready made teaching aids and no one wants to spend the time or take on the hassle of making that shit run in Wine.
Most school computers are not used for teaching IT (sorry, ICT) or anything close to "computing". They teach how to use a computer in the same way that kids are taught to read and write. After that, the computer becomes the pens, pencils, exercise books and library.
> They teach how to use a computer in the same way that kids are taught to read and write. After that, the computer becomes the pens, pencils, exercise books and library.
It is no wonder, then, that they can only scrawl, can't spell, and can't even add up a column of numbers.
Probably explains why when my older son (now 20) was at secondary school everything was based around Microsoft apps while when my younger son went 4 years later they'd dropped all that .... and mvoed evrything to Google Docs.
Yes, we warned them about coaching kids into ignoring privacy as well. Alas, there seems to be something in the academic mind that just wants to believe that companies value education so much they want to forego profit for it. Personally I'd report the school to the ICO if they made my kids establish a Google account and so agree to Google T&Cs without my explicit parental permission - trust me, they would have a major problem on their hands.
"when my younger son went 4 years later they'd dropped all that .... and mvoed evrything to Google Docs."
You must have been unlucky with your local school - most still use Office 365 - it's now free for schools / universities. Relatively few businesses use Google Apps, and people want their kids to be learning a version of Office that's actually some use to get a job!
This book exists for good reason: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1535538481
most still use Office 365 - it's now free for schools / universities
For the moment. It's not exactly the first time that the educational establishment has been conned into a Microsoft addiction it could not shake when the price went up as predicted by people who have seen it all before. I'm positive history will repeat itself.
Kindergarten to grade 12.
Novell did the same thing with NetWare when it was actually thriving.
So you expect K-12 schools [who probably don't have the money] to use Linux? Look at that miserable failure in Germany with the Windows to Linux partial migration. Not everyone moved to Linux and those who did used one of 5+ version of some unknown Linux distro.
Interesting.
Cortana gets removed from school editions.
And now we're finding out Cortana won't be able to be switched off anymore for everyone else when the Anniversary update for Windows 10 is released next week. Well, not easily at least.
www.pcworld.com/article/3100358/windows/you-cant-turn-off-cortana-in-the-windows-10-anniversary-update.html
Good thing Cortana doesn't - and won't ever - know anything about my Windows 7 (minus all the W10 nag and telemetry crap) /Linux Mint dual boot.
This is the big turn off for me with Win 10. Not just the simple fact of telemetry and privacy but more the fact that every 6 months we will now need to accept a whole new version of Windows and accept whatever changes Microsoft makes. There's no way out, you must take the upgrade. This will happen every 6 months! I cant take that kind of ultimatum on my production machine.
They need to have some kind of LTS option like Linux if they insist on people upgrading. Im staying well away from Win10.
That's only for Enterprise customers. If you are a one man band at home then MS think you are not worthy of the big boy version of Windows.
Every six months they will reinstall your system removing software they decide is no good for you, replacing the default apps back to MS defaults. And that's if it upgrades without trashing the thing altogether. Urgh really its so poor, what are they doing.
Cortina being forced, thus bing search?
How can this survive against an antitrust investigation.
Microsoft being a serial offender in this area. The US may look the other way, but the EU? And any countries with anti monopoly laws.
Its not as if the lay person can get into a PC these days and turn off secure boot, and install something else.
Hell, there are a lot of win10 certified systems out there that you would have to go through windows10 to get to the EFI settings to then turn off secure boot.
How do you do that without having to agree to windows terms and conditions?
Hi, I only just seen this.. Here you go, the formal notice in full..
https://www.cnil.fr/sites/default/files/atoms/files/2016-058_formal_notice_microsoft.pdf
Its long but jump to page 3, thats where it gets meaty..
Theres also an article about it here on the Reg somewhere.
There may even be a serious risk of stripping it down to the point of being a serious contender for an operating system. Or is that a step too far........
Yes, I think reformatting the drive is probably not going to be popular, effective as it would be to remove all Windows problems...
Our network nearly died after O2016 was deployed.
Every time a kid went to create a new document, the request to download all the templates went out, and was replied to.
Oh and could they remove the Xbox, TV & Movies, Groove and "solitaire collection" apps as well. Currently, collectively, the Microsoft caused banes of my life, there are others, but those are caused by our IT Department.
Now let me see
1) Notepad
2) Paint
3) access to regedit/gpedit etc
4) Ability to install apps from anything but from the App Store. Bang goes any Office alternative, text editors and start menu replacements.
5) access to non MS Clouds. Gotta stop them pirates.
6) command Line - everything must be done in powershell or bash.
7) access to 'net' command from anything
8) stops working if not connected to the mothership once a week for license validation (and mass telemetary data uploads)
etc
etc
etc
"I can't wait to see what other things Microsoft will decide to remove from Windows 10 in the next few years."
Judging by a computer someone has just brought to me that is newly downgraded to Windows 10, one feature they've decided to remove is network connectivity.
Either that, or it's yet another example of a downgrade that's gone wrong, resulting in the "owner" (as in the person who bought the computer, rather than Microsoft) losing productivity because nothing can be done until I've sorted it. (At the moment, he's doing a back up before I have a proper play).
Windows 10 is the biggest incentive I've ever had to move my everyday computer OS of choice to some sort of Linux.
Now if only I can make a choice of distro without everyone shouting at me that I'm about to make the Mistake of the Century by picking Umbongo over Crabgrass or Derailleur.
It's worse than building a stereo was in 1974.
This is what MS users, and anyone using SAAS, has to look forward to in the future. The deal changes, you see, whenever the vendor decides to change it. It's not like you OWN anything that you paid for, and it's yours.
Instead, you get the software du jour, and tomorrow they may decide to strip out some features or add some extra spyware telemetry so they can enhance their profit margins your user experience.
Imagine owning a car, and the manufacturer could send a mechanic around to put in a smaller engine, remove or randomly change some of the car's features and plant bugs in the car whenever they felt like it, and you couldn't do anything about it. Thank God MS doesn't make cars.
"Imagine owning a car, and the manufacturer could send a mechanic around to put in a smaller engine, remove or randomly change some of the car's features and plant bugs in the car whenever they felt like it, and you couldn't do anything about it. Thank God MS doesn't make cars."
That already happens when you take you car in for a service, especially if it;s still under warenty and you go to a dealer. They will upgrade the onboard computers firmware and likely not even tell you they did it, let alone what changes have been introduced. No doubt some models which now have built-in internet connectivity can be upgraded/changed whenever the manufacturer chooses too,
""That already happens..." if you have a VW."
It happens for a fair few makers. For example, a Tesla will sit in your garage, download updates, and alter the engine management however it damn well pleases. It can also cheerfully replace your interface in the console without permission.
Taking the car to the dealer may wind up meaning new maps in the navigation, or new firmware in the radio. But you can hold off on going until you hear what the results have been for other folks, instead of having them show up and do it automatically. Of course then, you take the car back home, reflash the ECU to the improved aftermarket settings, and you're back where you wanted to be in the first place.
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