What's the size of it, 1.5GB? Not much fun when you are on a pay by byte connection - even though I have it set as a "metered connection". Think I'll stay with Linux, I rarely use Windows these days, only for one of two specialist programmes.

12 giga bloody bytes!? Ridiculous. That's equivalent to 3000 Bibles, both old and new testaments! That's six weeks of data usage for me! 

Now; where did I put my Sinclair ZX81 with an 8kB ROM and 1kB RAM in which some clever soul wrote a chess programme.

I don't think I'll be updating Windows any time soon.

 

Just an update on my previous post on the data used by these Windows updates.

I just received a "new" PC this afternoon... a refurbished ex corporate Lenovo running Windows 10 Pro. It had been reimaged a few days ago onto a new SSD so was effectively as factory fresh without any software. As soon as I got it I running I applied all the latest updates.

It took a little over 3GB and a bit under an hour including several reboots. I have 25Mbps speed plan at home. So it appears the applications I had on my home PC must have taken the major slice of the 12GB that it consumed.

Just installed the 22H upgrade, no issues, as a matter of interest the download is about 5GB, fair lump of data.

Gundog wrote:

---

Today I have modified my Windows 11 firstly I have bypassed the need to log om using the Microsoft account login, now I use the local user account, I have also deleted or switched off all data feeds back to microsoft, thus preventing them from targeting my browsing and computer use with advertising.

I have also debloated all the apps and crap that I have no need for including MS Cloud, One Drive, Bing and Edge, I used a app called Bloaty Nosy which enables you to remove all the bloatware with a few clicks.

---

 I use a local account as well. And I have many tweaks and setting changes I do to make Windows more usable. With my new build I was peeved that I had to sign in to my Microsoft account so I could download Wikicamps (already have the licence). Unless someone knows a way around it that means (temporarily) using Microsoft account as the login. Once Wikicamps is installed it's OK to revert to local account. But Microsoft makes settings changes in the meantime. Really invasive.

One of those changes resulted in a popup message that there was a problem with my Microsoft account. Repeated at random times every day or two. There was no problem with my account. They just want to force me to give up and let them control things too much.

I have heard that the major updates like 22H2 result in this change if you use a local account to log in. The change that causes it is Shared Experiences gets activated. That is a feature that is supposed to let you resume what you were working on when you log into another PC. But it has been a dismal failure with very poor acceptance and practically no software supports it. Turn that feature off via Settings, System and the annoying popup goes away.

As for these updates, I turn them off via Group Policy Editor and then apply them in one go every few months.

I have cancelled all and I mean all updates on my Window 10 Asus comp. Had no updates for 3 years, it still works.

I had to do it as I only have a 60gb hard drive, and like the last smaller hard drive in the old computer, I nearly had no memory left, to use the thing, so, on this computer, went thru over a 2 week period, and deleted updates from the system, and banned anymore. Never again.

To cancel automatic updates requires Windows Professional. There is a way to do it with Home but I would have to search.

The easiest way is to use Windows Group Policy Editor.

1. Click Start
2. Search for GPedit.msc. It should appear in the list at the top of the results panel
3. Right click and choose "Run as Administrator"
4. In the panel that pops up, using the left pane, navigate to:

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update

5. Click on the Windows Update in the left pane. A list of "policies" should appear in the right pane
6. Double click the Configure Automatic Updates policy on the right side
7. On the left side, select Disabled.
8. Apply and OK.

Updates will no longer be offered but you can still do them if you wish by Settings, Update and Security.

While there, you may like this next one. The steps are pretty much the same.

 

To allow updates but stop offering Windows 11

With this setting, you can still get updates (manually or automatically), but they will only be minor updates. No major updates later than the release you specify will be offered. The current release for Windows 10 is 22H2.

In the same Windows Update section click on the Windows Update for Business in the left panel

Double-click the Select the target feature update version on the right side.

In the panel enter Windows 10 and 22H2 for the target version. Or enter an earlier version as you like.

Make sure it is Enabled, then Apply.

 

Windows 11 installation.

This is what I recommend...

 

Make sure your device meets the specs of the new operating system. Better to be above specs.

Last 3 years i5 0r i7 core8 (equivalent) 8gb or above required ram and min ssd 250gb hdd.

Never upgrade from one operating system to a later one.

Always do a fresh install to a later operating system.

Backup the current data from all your apps and programs.

Reinstall your programs and restore the program data.

Yes, it is a pain and time consuming but it will pay dividends later.

 

Anything less, forget about it!

 

 

-- Edited by Dick0 on Monday 12th of June 2023 05:44:29 PM

Windows 11 installation.

This is what I recommend...

 

Make sure your device meets the specs of the new operating system. Better to be above specs.

Last 3 years i5 0r i7 core8 (equivalent) 8gb or above required ram and min ssd 250gb hdd.

Never upgrade from one operating system to a later one.

Always do a fresh install to a later operating system.

Backup the current data from all your apps and programs.

Reinstall your programs and restore the program data.

Yes, it is a pain and time consuming but it will pay dividends later.

 

Anything less, forget about it!

 

 

Hi again more Win11 stuff

I hate Microsoft Edge and Bing so I have totally removed it from my PC before you go down the path of deleating Edge you will need to download another browser. In my case it's Google Chrome, why you might ask well because it links all my devices laptops, phones and tablets, but if you want to save space then Firefox or Opera are both small and good.

The prrocess to remove Edge can be quite involved, so I suggest you go to YouTube and watch a few of the "How to Permentaly uninstall Microsoft Edge in Windows 10 or 11" watch them a couple of times before attempting the event.

I made it easy for myself by having my tablet running the YouTube Vid beside the laptop whilst went through the process, I was able to stop and start the instructions at each setep.

Before you give it a crack, Set a Restore Point name it "Edge Delete" if do make a mistake or you want to go back to Edge its easy.

There is a couple of YouTube videos about Registry Tweaks by CyberCPU Tech I was happy choosing a couple of them.

 

It's about how invasive Bing/Edge on win 11, for example if you go windows start, and in the search box you type Regedit, it brings up the regedit App if you type GPedit unlike Win 10, Win 11 GPedit is not used, because it cannot find it, Bing take over and searchs brings up the results in MS Edge. If I want to search for a solution for a Group Policy editor I will ask my web browser.

Hence I have now gone to the registry editor and limited the displayed and search ability, Secondly the removal of Edge is space reclamation, if you don't use it get rid of it. it's bloatware like any other unused or unwanted app/program.

When it comes to web browsers, I agree with you, there are smaller and better browsers available. I only choose Chrome because it integrates all my data between my used devices. If it was a standalone device more than likely I would use Firefox.

Before I moved to windows 11, I used Samsung Internet Browser on my Phone and Tablet, my win 7 laptop was IE/Chrome, and GMail as my postbox, I moved my phone Motorola after that I transisioned everything to Chrome, and because my old laptop died and moved to a new one it came with win 11, I'm now finding little nugget that make it bearable. I have found a hack that turns the start menu into win 7 look a like.

As I said previously before making any changes set a restore point, that way if you dont like it or something goes wrong, its easy to fix.

 

-- Edited by Gundog on Saturday 17th of June 2023 10:33:35 AM

dorian wrote:

---

Chrome/Edge/Opera and Firefox all enable you to define custom search engines. In fact I have two dozen or more of them. For example, if I want to search with Bing, I type "b search_items". For Google, I type "g search_items".

Similarly, I type "e search_items" for Ebay and "a search_items" for Amazon.

---

 

A great tip, thanks Dorian. I have been using DuckDuckGo for searching for a long time, but never realised how the shortcuts could be used to invoke the different searches.

For those not sure how to implement it, here is the relevant config from my freshly modified settings in Firefox. I assume other browsers can do similar. Settings, Search and scroll down to here:

 

Double click the right hand side and in the popup cell, enter the shortcut you want to use (e.g. I entered "az" for Amazon). Then when searching type "az air fryers" and it will list those on Amazon.

It's also worthwhile doing some test searches to show the results from different search engines. Having used DuckDuckGo for so long I had forgotten how much I like it more than Google. Easier to filter the date range and country on demand, and less monetised links.

Dorian, I could not see how to add more shortcuts in Firefox. Any tips? As well as why and when you would choose one of your 20 search engines.

To add a custom search engine to Edge, just go to a web site and search for something.

Then paste the following URL into your browser:

edge://settings/searchEngines

You should see a new Jaycar search engine. Now edit it as previously discussed. You could use "jay" or "j" as your shortcut.

I expect that Chrome should allow you to do similar things.