11th February 2017, 4:08 PM
Here's a few quick tips for a few annoying aspects of Windows 10.
First, I'd open Settings, click Privacy, and then Background Apps. Turn off everything. This won't keep you from using any of these programs. It just keeps them from taking up memory when you aren't using them. For some reason, MS decided that programs like Calculator and Killer Instinct need to be ready and waiting at all times. As a side effect, you'll disable the constantly running advertisements for Office and whatever other "Get" programs are running there.
Now click on Feedback. Set both to the lowest settings your version will allow, which should drastically reduce the amount of data MS pulls from your day to day use. Click on Speech, blah blah blah and tell the system you don't want it to get to know you to finish that off. There's other settings here you can adjust to your liking, like what programs can access what data.
Back in the main settings menu, click on "Accounts". Are you logging in with a Microsoft online account or a local user account? If you see it, click on "Sign in with a local account instead" and follow the next steps to convert over to a local account. This unhooks you from any need to connect to MS's servers just to use your computer. You can still "link" your MS account to your local account for things like the store that require one.
Now go back to Settings and click "Personalization" and click on "Start". Disable "Occasionally show suggestions in Start". This innocuous little setting hidden in an innocuous little menu determines if your OS has permission to download and install random programs from the Microsoft store as "demos". Besides being annoying, this particular bit of superliminal marketing means your PC is at risk every time MS accidentally promotes a virus that got past their security checks for store content (and this is pretty much sure to happen, heck it's happened to Google's app store already). Heck, you're already going to be "at risk", but at least your will is the last barrier to entry. Anyway, like I said, turn this off.
One last annoyance is how Windows 10's programs have a nasty habit of taking back file associations you explicitely set to their "competition". I'm not really sure why MS cares if I'm actually using their browser (I mean, I already paid for it when I bought Windows, so what difference does it make at that point?), but it has a habit of not just resetting your browser default but your PDF reader default, and wow does Edge suck as a PDF viewer. There's no quick fix for this I'm afraid. There's just altering the registry, which you can do using this quick fix! http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/window...ociations/
Anyway, there's other matters MS really needs to address (give power users the option to opt out of mandatory updates!), but this should cover a lot of the most common annoyances.
First, I'd open Settings, click Privacy, and then Background Apps. Turn off everything. This won't keep you from using any of these programs. It just keeps them from taking up memory when you aren't using them. For some reason, MS decided that programs like Calculator and Killer Instinct need to be ready and waiting at all times. As a side effect, you'll disable the constantly running advertisements for Office and whatever other "Get" programs are running there.
Now click on Feedback. Set both to the lowest settings your version will allow, which should drastically reduce the amount of data MS pulls from your day to day use. Click on Speech, blah blah blah and tell the system you don't want it to get to know you to finish that off. There's other settings here you can adjust to your liking, like what programs can access what data.
Back in the main settings menu, click on "Accounts". Are you logging in with a Microsoft online account or a local user account? If you see it, click on "Sign in with a local account instead" and follow the next steps to convert over to a local account. This unhooks you from any need to connect to MS's servers just to use your computer. You can still "link" your MS account to your local account for things like the store that require one.
Now go back to Settings and click "Personalization" and click on "Start". Disable "Occasionally show suggestions in Start". This innocuous little setting hidden in an innocuous little menu determines if your OS has permission to download and install random programs from the Microsoft store as "demos". Besides being annoying, this particular bit of superliminal marketing means your PC is at risk every time MS accidentally promotes a virus that got past their security checks for store content (and this is pretty much sure to happen, heck it's happened to Google's app store already). Heck, you're already going to be "at risk", but at least your will is the last barrier to entry. Anyway, like I said, turn this off.
One last annoyance is how Windows 10's programs have a nasty habit of taking back file associations you explicitely set to their "competition". I'm not really sure why MS cares if I'm actually using their browser (I mean, I already paid for it when I bought Windows, so what difference does it make at that point?), but it has a habit of not just resetting your browser default but your PDF reader default, and wow does Edge suck as a PDF viewer. There's no quick fix for this I'm afraid. There's just altering the registry, which you can do using this quick fix! http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/window...ociations/
Anyway, there's other matters MS really needs to address (give power users the option to opt out of mandatory updates!), but this should cover a lot of the most common annoyances.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)