Microsoft Is About To Start Automatically Downloading Windows 10 Onto PCs

BI ^ | 2-3-2016 | Max Slater-Robins

[blam]

Max Slater-Robins
January 3, 2016

Microsoft has made Windows 10, the newest version of the operating system, a "recommended update," meaning that it will automatically download onto PCs, according to The Verge.

PCs that are are running Windows 7 or 8.1, the two versions that preceded 10, will download the newest version of the operating system automatically, unless the user opts out of the update.

Microsoft announced in October last year that Windows 10 would download automatically onto PCs, and has now started the process.

Anyone who has a metered internet connection, with a data limit, will have to switch off the automatic update manually, as it will use up around six gigabytes of storage.

(snip)

[newgeezer]

Try Nero for your burns.

Thanks but, I use Windows DVD Maker for authoring (menus, etc.).

I'm familiar with lots of players and burners. It's the authoring functionality that I'd need to replace.

[InfraRed]

Unless I have missed something somewhere, the host OS must have access to the network if any of the virtual machines need access to the network. The host OS owns the hardware. The VMs can only access the hardware bits that the host OS is willing to expose.

I can fully appreciate your reluctance to re-install Windows. I faced the same decision, but decided to bite the bullet. I knew that my Windows environment would eventually need to be rebuilt anyway, for one reason or another -- and that was before MS began to nudge everybody towards Win10.

By investing the time to rebuild my Windows environment as a VM, I will never, ever, have to do it again. Ever. I now have the VM backed up on a USB drive. If my workstation were to catch on fire right now, I could replace it with any make or model of PC, and have my Windows environment back without having to re-install apps or drivers. Windows would never know the hardware changed. That measure of security alone was worth the investment of time to virtualize.

I'm not familiar with rollbackRX, nor the way it functions, but I can see no reason why it wouldn't work in a VM. It would still be running in Windows. The VM appears to be physical hardware to the Windows OS. The only difference is that you have absolute control over what Windows can see or access.

[jimt]

In fact this itself is a form of theft through potential denial of service via interference.

No "form" about it, Microcephalic is blatantly committing theft.

[JOAT]

Bookmark

[Bob434]

[[Unless I have missed something somewhere, the host OS must have access to the network if any of the virtual machines need access to the network. The host OS owns the hardware]]

Ok that’s what I thought-

[By investing the time to rebuild my Windows environment as a VM, I will never, ever, have to do it again. Ever. I now have the VM backed up on a USB drive. If my workstation were to catch on fire right now, I could replace it with any make or model of PC, and have my Windows environment back without having to re-install apps or drivers. Windows would never know the hardware changed. That measure of security alone was worth the investment of time to virtualize.]]

I’ve done something similar- I have a physical hard-drive duplicator (about $60) that does a fantastic (but slow) job of a 1 to 1 duplication-

I got my main drive (C drive) to where I want it- all the updates, tweaks, UI changes patches, drivers etc etc etc done, all software updated (things like photoshop, OnOne photo suite etc) and I duplicated the disk onto another hard-drive- (I’ll just miss any recent updates from here on out and have to redo them if I plop in the new backup hard-drive but the bulk of updates are all done)

[Bob434]

Here’s what I’d like to do if possible? Download an Linux .iso, burn it to DVD- run it- make the tweaks I’d like to make, and somehow reburn it to a new disk once I get it the way I like it (I’ll want to add programs ot Thunderbird and Mozilla browser like Adblock, Ghostery, etc- Would You know if this is possible? Ho would changed user settings be saved? On the Windows ‘C’ drive?

[InfraRed]

I’ve done something similar- I have a physical hard-drive duplicator (about $60) that does a fantastic (but slow) job of a 1 to 1 duplication-

The difference is that your image is married to your hardware. If you decide to buy a new system and retire your old one, odds are that your old Windows image will freak out on the new hardware. Even if you have driver files for the new system, you may not get a chance to install them...

Every time I have attempted to move a Windows hard drive from an old PC into a new PC, the Windows OS wouldn't complete the boot process without throwing up a blue screen.

When Windows is installed into a virtual machine, it marries the virtual machine instead of your hardware. The virtual machine file can be moved from your old PC to your new PC, and Windows will remain happy because it thinks it's still booting from the same hardware.

[kanawa]

bkmk

[InfraRed]

There are probably a lot of distros out there with capabilities similar to what you seek, but I am not personally aware of any which function exactly in that manor.

I've been using a Knoppix thumb drive with similar capabilities for years. It's a great tool for imaging systems, adjusting partitions, etc., but it also has a graphical desktop, web browser, and persistent storage. The persistent storage is handled on an encrypted filesystem, so your personal data is fairly secure if you lose the thumb drive and somebody else tries to access it.

I boot the Knoppix 7.2 CD version from a thumb drive, and it works very well. However, I attempted to boot the 7.6 DVD version from a thumb drive a few days ago, and had no luck. I still need to track down a solution for that issue, because I really want to check out the larger DVD image. The 7.6 DVD version has far more application support, including the Blender 3d modeling application, a full LibreOffice install, and some other large packages. I believe it even includes the synaptic package manager for installing any of thousands of other open source apps.

Anyway, the 7.6 Knoppix DVD image might do what you want. I haven't attempted to boot it from DVD yet, so I really don't know what it looks like. The 7.2 CD image boots fine from a flash drive, and may meet most of your requirements. You can grab either via torrent here. If torrents aren't your thing, you can grab the images via ftp or http here.

Info about Knoppix and its siblings can be found here. There are probably a gazillion live distros by now, and you may find something more to your liking here. I stick with Knoppix, because it has served me very well over the past decade. It's not something I boot often, but it is something I couldn't live without. I built my own live disc once. I really liked the flexibility, but it was too large of a project for me to properly keep it updated. Knoppix just works.

[Bob434]

I wonder if there’s a way to get my current windows setup and settings onto a virtual drive? Probably not, huh?

[Bob434]

dumb question, but when you’ve got windows installed into the VMware, how do you get it from the VMware to a disk or thumbdrive?

[musicman]

BFLR

[r_barton]

Firefox: Remove Mozilla Announcements / Video window on Firefox Startup page.

From time to time Mozilla places announcements and a video window on the Firefox Startup page. Here is how to prevent those announcements and video window from appearing.

In Windows 10, Firefox:

In the Firefox URL field type:

about:config and press ENTER.

Click the "I'll be careful, I promise!" button.

In the search field type: snippets

locate the following string:

browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl

double-click on above string.

clear the URL in the "Enter string value" popup window.

click OK

-----

On the Firefox Menu Bar click

Help, Troubleshooting Information,

On the page that opens scroll down to:

Application Basics, Profile Folder, click "Show Folder" button

A window showing Firefox folders will appear.

click on /storage folder

click on /permanent folder

Leave this folder window open.

-----

Using the Firefox Hamburger Menu icon in Firefox (the 3-Line Icon on upper right) "EXIT Firefox" using the circle-with-a-line-through-the-top icon on bottom-right of popup menu.

-----

Go back to the open folders window.

now delete the /moz-safe-about+home folder

Close folder window.

-----

Now restart Firefox and the Mozilla announcements / Video window should be gone from the Firefox Startup page.

[InfraRed]

There's a tool called P2V (Physical To Virtual) which allegedly can be used to image a physical Windows or Linux system, and save that image as a virtual machine image. The last time I attempted such a thing, VMWare's website said the tool only supported Windows, and the Windows support was not working. Maybe they have fixed it since then. Personally, I think the elusive P2V functionality is likely to be found in the realm of unicorns, but you may find something here.

[InfraRed]

when you’ve got windows installed into the VMware, how do you get it from the VMware to a disk or thumbdrive?

If you are asking how to make an image of the virtual machine, it's amazingly simple. You drag/drop the .vmdk file onto your external storage.

The VMWare interface also has a tool to make snapshots of your virtual machines. These are much faster and smaller than trying to copy the entire VM over to a backup storage device, but I seldom use them unless I am experimenting with some sort of risky app/driver install and want an easy way to back it out.

If you were asking how to get a VM onto a thumbdrive, and then be able to boot from the thumb drive, VMWare isn't going to help you much. While I believe VMWare can probably boot a VM from USB storage, the VM image will not be able to boot by itself. You have to have the VMWare hypervisor running before a VM can boot.

[Bob434]

[[If you are asking how to make an image of the virtual machine, it’s amazingly simple. You drag/drop the .vmdk file onto your external storage.]]

Cool- sounds simple enough

Yeah I was asking more for ‘reinstalling’ the working windows environment should something go wrong along the way- the reason for my wanting this is because of the extra layer of complexity added with the rollbackRX adding a protected partition, and it also hooks into boot somehow so that I can roll back system at boot incase of viruses etc- I’d need all that info transfered to a VM as well- My disk duplicator does this perfectly-

I’ll check out p2v programs- thanks for the suggestion

[Bob434]

There’s an interesting looking program here that will convert a running windows installation to a VM it seems- Any thoughts on it?

Disk2vhd

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

It does state however “Note: Virtual PC supports a maximum virtual disk size of 127GB. If you create a VHD from a larger disk it will not be accessible from a Virtual PC VM.”

My hard-drive is 1.5 terabyte- does this mean I will be able to copy it BUT not be able to use it in a VM?

[InfraRed]

VirtualPC appears to be an older hypervisor which has been replaced by Hyper-V. Perhaps Hyper-V has better support for larger volumes?

BUT... Those both appear to require a Windows host OS, so you would lose the benefit of being able to isolate Windows from the network, and also be stuck with a Windows host OS which is married to your hardware.

If the VMWare price tag is off-putting, VirtualBox may be more appealing. It's free, and appears to also have a path for migrating a physical Windows installation into a virtual machine image. I'm not sure about volume size limitations, but their example appears to be addressing a 1.5TB image.

I've never used VirtualBox myself, but I have a friend who has been using it exclusively for years. I suspect that VirtualBox would have been a better option for me as well, but I was given a free VMWare license and just happened to try it first. Within the first day, I had several VMs tweaked to my liking, and I have yet to find enough motivation to switch to VirtualBox. I may make the attempt someday, just to have an open source hypervisor.

[InfraRed]

BTW, if you do make the leap and virtualize, I do not believe you will need or want that rollbackRX tool. As mentioned before, you can simply drag/drop a copy of your VM image files. Those image files can then be drag/dropped right back onto a host as needed. I'm not sure about VirtualBox, but I strongly suspect it has snapshot capabilities similar to VMWare -- for quick incremental backups.

One more tip.. When you install a Linux host, you can do so on a fairly small partition. My root filesystem currently resides on a 100GB SSD partition, but I am only using 24GB of that space -- and I have a massive load of software installed. This would be equivalent to using a small drive C: which could be restored quickly. By keeping your OS filesystem small, and your data stored on a different drive, it is quick and easy to recover from a disaster. If my primary drive dies, I boot the Knoppix thumb drive and 'dd' the 100GB (should really be around 32GB) image back onto a new hard drive. This brings back my entire Linux host, VMWare, and all of my application software.

The bulk of my personal data resides on a 2TB drive which is mounted to /home. That drive has been mirrored onto an external USB drive. If my /home drive dies, the USB drive can be mounted at /home to immediately resume operations until the dead drive can be replaced and restored.

The bottom line: To bring my entire environment back from the dead, I can restore a single 100GB image (should be resized to ~32GB), and/or mount a USB drive to /home. The important part: This could be done quickly onto a completely different PC, and all the VMs will never know the hardware changed.

[Bob434]

The only thing is that with rollback, it does an ‘on boot’ menu- if a virus makes it impossible to boot, I can do a rollback to a time before the virus hit=- I’m sure there’s a way with doing this htrough running Linux if windows won’t not, I guess- but then we’re talking complicated stuff I’m not familiar with- but I suppose if worst came to worst- I could always just [plop a new hard-drive in after I get it formatted, and do like you said- drag and drop the VM backup onto it-

[[By keeping your OS filesystem small, and your data stored on a different drive, it is quick and easy to recover from a disaster.]]

That’s what I’d like to do- but I don’t know much about partitions and maintaining them- etc-

[[The bulk of my personal data resides on a 2TB drive which is mounted to /home. That drive has been mirrored onto an external USB drive. If my /home drive dies, the USB drive can be mounted at /home to immediately resume operations until the dead drive can be replaced and restored.]]

That’s exactly what I’d like to do (and kinda what I do with the duplicated drive- I plop it in and get a new drive to replace my dead one, then duplicate to that one, and walla, up and running (but the duplication takes a long time- about 14 hours lol)- but your system seems like it owudl be much quicker- and no real down time (ie having to physically remove hard-drive, install old back up one etc)

[[Those image files can then be drag/dropped right back onto a host as needed. I’m not sure about VirtualBox, but I strongly suspect it has snapshot capabilities similar to VMWare — for quick incremental backups.]]

That’s what rollback does- snapshots- it’s set up to do automatic ones at start up- or anytime I tell it to- and does so automatically- (which has saved my bacon many times as I’m terrible about doing manual things like manual backups) but it sounds like your system is the way to go Because I do Not want windows 10 and certainly don’t want it being the one connected to internet at all times now that they are including massive spyware and forced updates- just not happy with the way windows has decided to go- and like someone said they may try going to a cloud based system pay per month eventually- Uggh!

The only thing though is whether I can move files between the windows VM and the host os Linux? Looks like that might be a problem?