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Dear Microsoft – a sysadmin's wishlist (what could Microsoft do, or do better...?)
The Register ^ | Feb 1, 2017 | Trevor Pott

Posted on 02/09/2017 2:31:41 PM PST by dayglored

Sysadmin Blog

I yell at Microsoft a lot. It's cathartic. Microsoft make several decent pieces of software and quite a few great cloud services, but for every awesome thing they create it seems they ruin something else. Over the past year I've developed a wishlist of changes. Dear Microsoft...

Azure Stack

I like Azure Stack. A lot. What I don't like is the price tag. The preview version was great. Unfortunately you removed our ability to roll our own. That's sad, but I understand that all your large partners are eager not to be put out of business by your ability to single-handedly render them irrelevant and make cheap Chinese server manufacturers the future of the data centre.

They want enough time to bleed the companies dry before parachuting out figure out a new business model. Fair enough.

What would be groovy, however, is if you found a partner to release a two-node solution for the enthusiast/SMB market. Xeon-D-based nodes are fantastic examples as they can put 128GB of RAM into a single node, allowing the creation of a highly available cluster with enough RAM to actually take Azure Stack for a ride...

[... more on Windows, Spying, Updates, etc. at the link...]

(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet; Hobbies
KEYWORDS: microsoft; sysadmin; windows; windowspinglist
Surprisingly good list, IMHO...
1 posted on 02/09/2017 2:31:41 PM PST by dayglored
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To: Abby4116; afraidfortherepublic; aft_lizard; AF_Blue; amigatec; AppyPappy; arnoldc1; ATOMIC_PUNK; ...
One for us Sysadmins ... PING!

You can find all the Windows Ping list threads with FR search: just search on keyword "windowspinglist".

2 posted on 02/09/2017 2:32:39 PM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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To: dayglored
"Like oh so many others, I'm quite angry that the only version of Windows that is almost usable is Enterprise. Enterprise only comes in packs of five, and this makes me a giant pink rage monster. Make Enterprise something that can be purchased one at a time, by consumers, without a subscription.

While you're handing out unicorns, for the love of Jibbers, please stop resetting default applications after every major update. We choose not to use Microsoft-provided applications for a reason. Respect that."


I concur. Windows 10 Pro has been an administration nightmare for our small shop and a confusing mess for users. It's to the point that I'm turning my desktops into RDP endpoints just to ditch 10 because I can't justify the cost to roll out Enterprise when I already have the RDP licensing.


3 posted on 02/09/2017 2:39:47 PM PST by chrisser
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To: dayglored

The safe mode issue, telemetry, and forced updates (which often break the system) are some of the reasons I won’t upgrade past Windows 8.

I avoid using Windows 10 as much as possible, but I have some machines at my office now that an outside IT firm upgraded to 10 and I just noticed that on one, which has no user accounts besides the local admin account, since it isn’t on the domain, now most of the built-in Windows programs won’t work. It gives a message saying stuff like “Calculator” can’t be run under the Administrator account.

WTF is that? I mean, the local administrator account is supposed to have MORE access than any other account on the machine, not less!


4 posted on 02/09/2017 2:59:06 PM PST by Boogieman
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To: Boogieman

Windows 7 and 10 have that admin issue for something as simple as renaming a file or deleting. I found a script online that gives you the permission you should have had all along. I should not need to be an sysadmin. I just want to rename a file!

Update: after all these years we finally figured out who originally made the first version of the registry hack — it was a system tweaking guru by the name of Herby.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/

http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/windows-7-access-denied-permission-ownership/


5 posted on 02/09/2017 3:10:43 PM PST by minnesota_bound
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Perhaps they can stop making “improvements” that bury formerly easy to find functions under new names and categories that make them impossible to find


6 posted on 02/09/2017 3:11:49 PM PST by dsrtsage (One half of all people have below average IQ. In the US the number is 54%)
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To: Boogieman

pull up Local Security Policy as an admin

Click on Local Policies, then Security Options

Go to and double-click on User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for the Built In Administrator Account

Set it to Enabled

Run a command window as administrator, do gpupdate /force

Log out, log back in and that should take care of it.

If not, reboot first.


7 posted on 02/09/2017 3:15:45 PM PST by chrisser
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To: Boogieman

pull up Local Security Policy as an admin

Click on Local Policies, then Security Options

Go to and double-click on User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for the Built In Administrator Account

Set it to Enabled

Run a command window as administrator, do gpupdate /force

Log out, log back in and that should take care of it.

If not, reboot first.


8 posted on 02/09/2017 3:15:47 PM PST by chrisser
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To: chrisser

Linux never has those sort of issues. I’ll never look back.


9 posted on 02/09/2017 4:02:14 PM PST by GingisK
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To: Boogieman
> WTF is that? I mean, the local administrator account is supposed to have MORE access than any other account on the machine, not less!

LOL, the Windows / NTFS permissions model, which started with the best of intentions in the early 1990's, has become an albatross.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy working with rich ACLs. But the implementation in Windows has become confusing and ultimately counterproductive.

10 posted on 02/09/2017 4:50:01 PM PST by dayglored ("Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.")
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To: GingisK

Love Linux, but all too many mission-critical apps are written only for Windows.

In a small environment, two OSs really adds a lot of work to the already stretched IT staff.


11 posted on 02/09/2017 5:04:49 PM PST by chrisser
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To: dayglored

The Active directory MMC is positively archaic. Fingernails on the chalkboard every time I use it. I’ve been teaching myself PowerShell in an attempt to mitigate its inadequacies.

Here’s another one - Regedit. After all these years why don’t they have an address bar so you can easily navigate? They do it for everything else?!


12 posted on 02/09/2017 8:01:06 PM PST by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: Boogieman

I discovered the same thing about Win-10s metro apps. I hate ‘em - and I’m replacing them as I go.

Here’s a link to the calculator you’re likely used to from Win-7 - all neatly repackaged for Win-10: http://winaero.com/blog/get-calculator-from-windows-8-and-windows-7-in-windows-10/


13 posted on 02/09/2017 8:10:19 PM PST by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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