Don't touch that PDF or webpage until your Windows PC is patched Microsoft has patched 41 CVE-listed security vulnerabilities in its software this month. The second Patch Tuesday monthly update of the year brings with it fixes for security flaws in both Internet Explorer and Edge that could allow remote-code-execution attacks simply by visiting a webpage. Also fixed are remote-code- …
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Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate- 19 updates with 3 additional Sneaky Sneaky Windows 10 updates (Hidden)- FORTY-FIVE ARSE GRINDING MINUTES start to finish.
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64 bit - full OS upgrade with patches and Firefox update - FIFTEEN MINUTES including reboot and removing old packages with Synaptic and update to Clam AV and Grub.
Windows:The Motion Picture.
AND you paid for it.
Windows 7 SP1 seems to have been artficially lobotimized, by MS (with or without an SSD)
Windows Update just doesn't work anymore on 7, though this is likely to be down to people avoiding the Windows 10 nagware updates. Like IE, MS seem to be embedding those Win10 nagware system updates as deeply into Windows 7 as possible, so regards a future lawsuit they can say they are fundamental to the operation of Windows 7 and there is no way to backtrack, 'sorry'.
In the meantime Mint 17.3 is like a beacon showing how a modern OS should install and update itself, there is no nonsense, wondering what its up to. Very granular, you can see exactly what its doing.
Love it or hate it, regards updating your OS, Mint 17.3 is showing the way it should be done.
With Windows rapid release cycle, 'Clunky' Windows Update, has made itself a foreground task, taking serious amount of productivity time. It needs some serious work, to make it as seemless as dropbox, to put it back in the background where it belongs.
No problems here. Win 7 Pro does everything I need, works just peachy with an SSD. I have GWX Control Panel running to prevent any unwanted upgrades, and windows update set to notify me and not do anything until I'm good and ready.
As for Linux Mint, tried it and gave up. All I wanted was my three monitors to work together like they do on WIn7. If I manage to get two working, they either have horrendous refresh issues or I can't drag windows from one to the other.
Yep I'd love to move to Mint or Ubuntu on my desktop, but also have multi-monitor problems with it. With one regularly oriented monitor, and the other portrait, I get a cursor that turns invisible on the primary display.
A look around reveals I'm not alone, but no solid fixes forthcoming (and oh my days did I spend a lot of time and effort trying to fix it before having to go back to Windows).
Would genuinely jump at the chance to use a *buntu as my daily runner, but I've just too much work to do that requires this basic stuff.
Jesus. The Anonymous Cowards on this site are getting worse than the regulars. They gripe from behind the mask of anonymity about Linux every time without realising that half the reason why is because it winds up the Microsoft fanbois.
The other half is because they truly hate/mistrust Microsoft and Windows 10.
Oh, and in case anyone was disappointed that I haven't said it recently, Linux is not Mint!
@ Adam Jarvis - "Windows Update just doesn't work anymore on 7"
Windows Update is working just fine on my Windows 7 machines, it is as fast as it ever was. Which is not to say as fast as greased lightning, but neither is it the day long grind reported by some posters.
"MS seem to be embedding those Win10 nagware system updates as deeply into Windows 7 as possible"
Thanks to resources freely available on the web, I have no Win10 nagware on my Win7 machines. I also don't have Win10.
"In the meantime Mint 17.3 is like a beacon showing how a modern OS should install and update itself, there is no nonsense, wondering what its up to. Very granular, you can see exactly what its doing."
I took a (short) break while typing this post to install Mint 17 on a customer's laptop. Those marvelously enlightening, granular installation messages included:
The ever popular - "copying files"
followed by - "installing system"
and then - "configuring hardware".
I felt refreshed, invigorated, empowered, as though I had tasted the very nectar of the gods.
Or not.
I don't love or hate Mint, it is one of many alternatives to Windows, no more, and no less. I try to use the right tool for the job. For some jobs, that IS Windows. I don't proselytize any operating system, I just want to "get on with it".
"With Windows rapid release cycle"
2014-05-31 - Mint 17.0
2014-11-29 - Mint 17.1
2015-06-30 - Mint 17.2
2015-12-04 - Mint 17.3 - dates obtained from distrowatch.com
I make that four "long term support" releases in 18 months. Why Clem Thefevered deems this necessary, I couldn't say. This may not be as rapid as Firefox, but it is certainly more rapid than Windows.
FYI, this post, like all of my posts on El Reg, has been made using Firefox on Mint 17.0.
@ Kurt Meyer
"Thanks to resources freely available on the web, I have no Win10 nagware on my Win7 machines. I also don't have Win10."
Thanks to resources freely available on the web, I have Debian installed. Your'e right - no win10 nagware here...
I use a different os than the os you use because I am a brain wizard and as any fule no, it isn't possible for different people to use different os' for different things in different environments or on different machines. There is only one way to computer and I have found it. A point I shall make repeatedly, for ever, until my genius is acknowledged. durf durf durf.
Just wait until you want to move to version 18 - as ever with Mint, it will very probably break the one true Debian way:
(change /etc/apt/sources.list to use new version)
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
.. and instead expect you to back up everything and install a new copy.
I use a 3rd party PDF viewer but I received a message after rebooting from the Patch Tuesday updates that Edge would now be taking over that job, thank you very much.
It's stupid shit like this that MS really have got to sort out. Apparently it's not an isolated case; something similar happened in November as well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/3sr2ec/psa_warning_the_windows_10_fall_update_resets_all/
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0) Assume input validation is insufficiently locked down
1) Start Firebug
2) Find the input field with id="comment_icon_textfield" type="hidden" name="icon" value="stop"
3) Guess at the value of the old-school gates icon (inspect icon's name to do that)
4) Write script to inject name when you "POST COMMENT" (I'm too lazy to wander through the dark valley of webupskilling to do that)
5) ???
6) Amazeballs!
KB2952664 is a real bastard. It got onto my system a while back - I guess I wasn't paying sufficient attention - and now all efforts to remove it have failed. Every time I uninstall it, it immediately re-installs itself, leading me to think that it never actually uninstalled at all. This must break a pretty basic rule - surely all updates must be removable, in case they disagree with something?
This may be casting aspersions - but I could swear I installed the GWX blocker v1.6 on both my PCs. It is still there on the one that was updated to v1.7 - but missing from the lesser used PC. That is strange because I gave the binary or link to several of my customers at that time.
My "transfer" usb stick has v1.6 but not v1.7 - suggesting I never updated the lesser used PC to v1.7.
The question is - did I forget to install v1.6 on my other PC - or has "something" removed it? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean.
Paranoia is driving me rapidly to Linux Mint.
'I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft Security Essentials had been primed to hoover up any signs of disruptive "blocking" software to the Windows 10 roll-out process. This is all getting a bit too cat and mouse.'
You would be promoted at M$ for that idea, congratulations!
I'll pass that on in the next meeting :D
I can almost picture you in that Microsoft meeting, except you used M$, rather than MS.
GWX Control Panel 'is' Malware to MS (in their eyes) because its disrupting their software distribution model- its actively disrupting (reducing) the number of Windows 10 upgrades.
Would anyone really be surprised if MS added its signature to Microsoft Security Essentials for removal purposes?
I noticed tonight that Windows update asked me to authorise hiding one of the W10 upgrade updates. It then let me hide two more without asking for that authorisation. Don't remember it asking before.
Strikes me MS can gain full access to the PC in that way - even if they couldn't before.
Something seemed to have changed my Windows Update settings to "automatic" too - something I usually change to "manual" when I build a PC.
There's nothing that MS offers any more that isn't fully covered in the FOSS world - apart from the massive security flaws, instabilities and sneaky forced "upgrades". MS have never released any properly working products - everything's always going to be fixed in the next release.... Free beer tomorrow!
Much as I love the ethos and reality of the penguin, that sort of crap makes me cringe. There is certainly plenty "that MS offers that isn't fully covered in the FOSS world" - show me a drop-in replacement for Excel capable of operating any given complex, macro laden spreadsheet in full, without deviating from the behaviour of the version of Excel in which it was created, for example.
No?
Whether the One Microsoft Way is optimal, or a hideous kludge of incompetence hamstrung by backward compatibility liabilities and inertia, or just a carefully laid minefield of obfuscation and contrived incompatibility, or some monstrous combination of all those things, or whatever else, is certainly debatable. If you feel inclined. As is whether any particular alternative approach is "better"/equivalent/adequate. But asserting "There's nothing that MS offers any more that isn't fully covered in the FOSS world" is just sdoopid beyond belief.
show me a drop-in replacement for Excel capable of operating any given complex, macro laden spreadsheet in full, without deviating from the behaviour of the version of Excel in which it was created
Excel doesn't do that either, new versions just quietly changes your results when you open the sheet.
Because it's stored in an opaque binary format, you can't even spot it until it mysteriously costs you.
If you want full, unchanged results you can't ever change Excel version. Ever.
One of my clients inadvertently saved an Excel spreadsheet in opendocument format, and it then failed to calculate a simple foreign exchange conversion correctly. Nothing to do with floating-point idiosyncrasies because in certain circumstances, with the same starting figures it produced the correct result. Three people eyeballed the problem and it was only when it was noticed that the format wasn't in xls mode and reverted that the correct result was reliably displayed.
Do iOS and Android versions of Microsoft Excel even open complex, macro laden VBA spreadsheets?
They don't have the VBA programming language add-on. LibreOffice Calc 5 is probably about as compatible as iOS/Android versions of MS Excel, when opening a file created on the desktop version of Excel.
Working between LibreOffice Calc 5 and free iOS/Android versions of Excel, the simpler files (non-VBA macro'd) they are probably much more interchangeable.
really!!!
I have a set of Excel spreadsheets using Extensive VBA code and calling a number of external DLL's. Since upgrading from Office 2003, The application produces exactly the same results, We know this because we use extensive automated testing tools to compare results between versions and to determine correctness. Since Excel 2007 we have not had any issues, last year we changed to Excel 64bit, still no problems.
Actually I prefer UNIX. My first Microsoft operating system on a personally owned system was Win XP, Prior to that I used SCO UNIX, Solaris and later Red Hat so I'm no Microsoft fanboi.
"There's nothing that MS offers any more that isn't fully covered in the FOSS world"
Except for almost every non-Microsoft business app ever produced.
Seriously guys and gals, Linux is probably OK for most home use unless you have a particular taste for a Win-only game or website plugin, but business has been writing crapware for Windows for several decades now and is currently sitting on a steaming mountain of the stuff that it politely calls "legacy".
WINE just doesn't cut the mustard, so it is whatever's-the-latest-Windows for most companies. If there was a free alternative, do you think they'd still be paying the licence fees? These are businesses, working for money, and able to pay for people to come in and help with the transition if that's necessary.
"... without deviating from the behaviour of the version of Excel in which it was created, ..."
That's the problem right there. The vast majority of people who use computers for things that are useful, imporant or essential to them have got used to using the MS Windows suites and all their characteristics, as well as the characteristics of the underlying OS. There's also a massive installed base of computing software assets and associated data files with their ingrained ways of working.
You could say the same thing about Photoshop vs GIMP etc. for doing the things that most people do with them (not counting pro-level graphics people of course).
The other problem is lack of general awareness of the availablility of SOHO Linux solutions and the learning curve associated with getting them up and running and doing what you need them to do. Most people don't "know about computers" because they're interested in them; it's something they've had to learn because their job demands it (and did so slowly, over time) or they want to surf the internet, send e-mail, etc.
Windows has massive presence and inertia and I can't see how that situation will change in the near future.
"Windows has massive presence and inertia and I can't see how that situation will change in the near future."
You have hit the nail on the head with the word inertia. The way to solve that is to sack anyone who suggests a Microsoft solution. Did no-one notice that after XP, with it's focus on DRM, Windows became akin to spyware? if you did not begin to migrate at that time your business is probably screwed, the NSA will have passed all your confidential data to competitors in the USA.
Read this and think again:
https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html
The vast majority of people who use computers for things that are useful, imporant or essential to them have got used to using the MS Windows suites and all their characteristics, as well as the characteristics of the underlying OS.
Actually, that's an interesting point. One of the biggest gripes I've heard about Office is the push to get users to use the "ribbon" interface on later versions of Office to the extent that some users will move from Office to alternatives to maintain some semblance of continuity or simply not bother to "upgrade" at all. Both situations affect Microsoft's bank balance in the end.
And yes, I have been known to run Word using... oh wait, what was that thing that couldn't "cut the mustard" earlier in this forum? WINE?
Yet again the cnuts at ms took the opportunity to hijack my file associations and punt them back at Microsoft's own useless apps. Even more annoying this time after finally getting sound to work 99% correctly with my ancient AV system over optical. STOP STEALING MY SETTINGS!
I've never noticed a Microsoft system on the TARDIS. The only Earth system I've ever noticed was in episodes like the Fifth Doctor where it was...
AN ACORN SYSTEM!!! A BBC Micro running in mode 7 for text and mode 2 for the graphic displays, if I'm not much mistaken.
You see? Even a blind pig stumbles over an Acorn every now and then!
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