Tech: Windows 10-what's happening - updates

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 May 20 - 12:33 PM

So this is WHAT you do - but why? Are you using the Win10 backup tools? I'm looking for someone who has compared the NT backup to the new Win 10 backup and can explain their decision for using one over the other.

I also have a spare Win10 computer that is offline, with a backup for that (it won't communicate with the network unless I reinstall the OS but I would lose all of the programs I have loaded in there.)

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 08 May 20 - 12:49 PM

No I don't use the Win10 backup tools. I can't help you on NT backup.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 May 20 - 12:50 PM

Win7 is the NT backup.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Nick
Date: 08 May 20 - 01:15 PM

A bit like Bonzo I clone the C: drive of my main machine to a spare drive either when there is a major windows change (ie do it before and then when it settles and I'm sure is ok) or when I have installed significant new software. Or generally about once a month

Most things I save on a 2Tb external drive. Day to day stuff is either in Documents or Desktop. I back up the bits I want from the 2Tb drive and the local C: drive but just use Robocopy from habit. Ran it today and it takes under a minute if it's up to date. If I back up the whole of Lightroom it takes 17 minutes which I do occasionally but not routinely

@ECHO ********* SECOND MACHINE and TECKNET DOCK NEEDS TO BE ON ********
@ECHO ********* Run As Administrator to back up Lightroom ********
@ECHO ********* Last run May 8 2020 - UPDATE DATE AFTER ********
@ECHO ********* Last CLONE run April 29 2020 - UPDATE DATE AFTER ********
PAUSE
robocopy H:\APPLICATIONS E:\BACKUPfrom2TB\APPLICATIONS /MIR
robocopy H:\DOCUMENTS E:\BACKUPfrom2TB\DOCUMENTS /MIR
robocopy H:\ISOs E:\BACKUPfrom2TB\ISOs /MIR
robocopy H:\MEGA E:\BACKUPfrom2TB\MEGA /MIR
robocopy H:\MIXING_COURSE E:\BACKUPfrom2TB\MIXING_COURSE /MIR
robocopy H:\MUSIC E:\BACKUPfrom2TB\MUSIC /MIR
robocopy H:\REAPER_PROJECTS E:\BACKUPfrom2TB\REAPER_PROJECTS /MIR
net use T: /delete /Y
net use T: \\NAMEOFMYCOMPUTER\backupfrommain
robocopy C:\users\MYUSERNAME\desktop T:\users\desktop /MIR
robocopy C:\users\MYUSERNAME\documents T:\users\documents /MIR
robocopy H:\PICTURES T:\Users\2TBDRIVE\PICTURES /MIR
start /wait notepad.exe "C:\Users\MYUSERNAME\Desktop\BAT files\BackUpAllDrives.bat"
PAUSE

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: DaveRo
Date: 08 May 20 - 03:01 PM

When my wife's laptop updated win 7 to 10, some years ago, I was suspicious of File History backup and carried on using thw win 7 backup. But after researching it, I changed over, using a USB3 drive, and it's works well. I ran both for a while. She could display all past versions of a file in file manager, and restore any one of them.

But it's intended to work continuously in the background, with the backup drive always available, and I wanted the backup disconnected to avoid ransomeware. So I put a shortcut on the desktop to start it up manually.

I never had to restore the whole drive so I can't comment on that.

Technically, what it does is make a copy of the directory structure (like Linux rsync) and simply adds a timestamp to each filename. That's what you see if you mount the backup drive.

As I posted on this thread recently, she's now using Linux. No more Windows Update! But I miss file history backup.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 May 20 - 05:20 PM

The answer I've discovered is that it is a bit of both. To use the File History, it is set up with the Win10 settings, but when you select to save the system image, then the Win7 feature kicks in to save the system image. I stopped it in progress the first time through because I thought I'd selected the wrong settings. Not easy to remove the partial files, but I did, and have it set up to run again now.

I like the idea that with File History you can find and restore specific files, but I also have the concern about it being connected all of the time; I've considered setting it in the closet connected through the UPS, but I'd have to figure out how to route it there (it's connected to my router). In the past I turned on the backup drive to run once a week or so; this is set up to run an incremental backup every day. I think that UPS needs a new battery by now so before I try that setup, I need to replace the batteries. Separate issue, part of the whole big question.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: DaveRo
Date: 09 May 20 - 03:36 AM

Ransomeware is still common, and getting more sophisticated. I was reading about one called Maze the other day. They're aimed at businesses so they're good at detecting network connections and encrypting any volumes they can find. Maze also tries to delete any 'shadow volumes' it finds (I'm not sure what these are). ISTR reading that they can wait until drives are connected before kicking off. So it's vital to keep backups, or some of them, physically disconnected.

My solution was only practicable on a laptop which is used on the kitchen table. On a desktop it would be too easy to forget to unplug the drive.

If I had to set it up with ethernet I'd think of a way of unmounting or disconnecting the remote drive after use. I could for example connect the drive to a RaspberryPi and have the RPi unmount it, or shutdown, afterwards. Or power it via a timeswich that turns off after 5 minutes - enough to do one backup. (RPi's are cheap, and fun to use - if you're technically inclined. I use one as a music player, and a backup device - though I no longer worry about ransomeware.)

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 09 May 20 - 03:58 AM

At work we have auto backup of the server every hour. This means that Windows "restore previous versions" has saved the day on many occasions when an excel file for instance has become corrupt, or deleted by mistake, you can see a previous saved version of the file!

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 May 20 - 04:21 PM

We have our computers set up so we know how to do the things we want with the tools we want - but it seems that Microsoft is pushing out one of the largest Patch Tuesday updates ever; 111 vulnerabilities are being addressed.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-may-2020-patch-tuesday-fixes-111-vulnerabilities/.

Good luck. Who knows what will be altered or cleared out when it finishes.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 14 May 20 - 02:25 AM

Did the updates last night - watch this space!!

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 May 20 - 11:13 AM

I set it up to update and turn off. So far this morning after restart all is well, and during the update it didn't remove my addition of the old Win7 Solitaire games (the last big OS revision got rid of the Microsoft games but left in place my 2003 html editor "Frontpage.")

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 16 May 20 - 07:59 AM

No problems so far, but then I don't allow any irish diddly diddly music on my PC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: EBarnacle
Date: 18 May 20 - 06:33 PM

I got this from friend earlier today He was gloating that Linux is admitted to be greater than Windows. My response is the top entry.

What these articles really say is that the products have been evolving toward each other over the years. Open source allows greater development flexibility. Of course, it also creates vulnerabilities when a feature has not been fully vetted. Adopt at your own risk.
I wonder whether Apple will get on the bandwagon also and finally allow a unified system that works on all platforms. If so, that will turn product competition into a hardware race.
New apps would be exchangeable between systems.
If you look at the guts of machines, they are nearly all interchangeable parts already.
If you look at the history of Microsoft, they have never been slow to adopt improvements, even if they had to buy out the competition to get them in order to avoid copyright suits. Being open source, they do not even have to buy Linux.   

Yep, Microsoft has been open sourcing many of their own products. The past several years have been a major transition for Microsoft. Here's an article on the Windows Subsystem For Linux:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/6/18534687/microsoft-windows-10-linux-kernel-feature

https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/18/21262103/microsoft-open-source-linux-history-wrong-statement

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: DaveRo
Date: 19 May 20 - 02:33 AM

When 'Windows Subsystem for Linux' (WSL) came out a few years back I loaded it onto the old desktop on which I still have an (unregistered) copy of Win10 to see what it was. The thing that puzzled me then is why it was called that. It's just a Linux system (command line only - no graphical interface) running within Win10. It should be called 'Linux Subsystem for Windows'. So if you have a program or suite of programs that runs on Linux you can run it there, in a command shell, and it can intercommunicate - I think - with Windows programs and files.

But why would anybody do that? I assumed this was Microsoft trying to slow migration of server systems to Linux. Businesses can stay on Windows and still use odd bits of Linux code intergrated with their existing systems.

And Windows still has its own kernel. It's just updating the one in 'WSL' - admittedly to a very recent one.

Microsoft is trying to adapt to a world of mobile devices and huge servers accessed over 'the cloud'. And it has nothing to offer in either. Maybe the name 'Windows Subsystem for Linux' indicates that eventually they'll turn Windows inside out and it'll become a Linux Operating System with an (optional?) built in Windows graphical interface.

WSL does have something to offer to a few of us here. You can run the Linux command line stuff such as bash and ffmpeg on it, so that's more portable.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Nick
Date: 19 May 20 - 08:50 AM

This is a bit of a mea cupla re Windows 10...

Well it's coming up for 5 years since I started using Windows 10 (May or June 2015 when we started testing with it) and I still think it is one of the better editions. I liked 3.1, Windows 98 Second edition, Win XP, Windows 7.

But I have always been really bad through most of those versions of abusing my desktop space. I drop things on it constantly. Shortcuts to things. program launches. Things I'm working on. Inevitably when it all gets too much I copy all the crap into another folder and start again.

And... yes... I know it's wrong and I'm a hopeless case.

So in a way I still use Windows a little bit like I did back in 3.1 days and even though I have used (and supported tangentially because of the software the company I worked for made) every version since there is still a legacy there. And a like for DOS, Robocopy and bat files.

I think I found Windows 8 more of an irritation to work round than a positive venture and 10 is a descendant I guess.

So...

There I was thinking that my desktop was taking over again and I could do with a tidy up. And wondering whether I should reorganise the taskbar that has shortcuts to all the programs I use regularly as it was getting unwieldy when I suddenly noticed the start menu that I have been ignoring for 5-8 years. And I thought. I wonder what that is there for?

Previously I have passed it by as an irritation offering me news that I don't want, apps and movies and games that I will never use, just a thing I am glad when it disappears - why are some of those icons SO LARGE???

So then the penny dropped that must have dropped for everyone else apart from me.

That it is rather good.

My life is now revolutionised. My new desktop world has nothing on it apart from one folder, the Recycle bin (which I can't get rid of) and my Killchrome.bat file that shuts the memory consuming multiple versions of Chrome running in the background and foreground as it occasionally gets in the way when recording music. And nothing else.

In any program I now press the Windows key and am one click away from launching anything I need - from storage, to music, to little tools I find handy, online meetings, all the folders I use.

I kick myself for being an idiot and making life difficult for myself when the most obvious thing that was trying to help was staring at me every day. I must have clicked on Start 10's of thousands of times over the last 5 years...

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Nick
Date: 19 May 20 - 09:08 AM

I use an iPad too and the piece of software that I used to work on was developed on the basis of touch and icons and new Windows systems and use on mobile devices.

I still like a big keyboard and a decent sized screen (and wouldn't like to try and mix music on a phone or tablet!) but you would have thought that I might have linked the two things together and realised that Windows was trying to help me. But no. I was still right clicking on things and putting shortcuts on taskbars etc etc and doing everything I could to make things hard.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Joe G
Date: 19 May 20 - 09:12 AM

Interesting what you have done with the start menu, Nick. I like the way you have organised folders and programmes - I do that on the desktop but they move around occasionally!

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Nick
Date: 19 May 20 - 09:54 AM

Joe, I guess I have always tried to have a minimum of clicks to get to do what I want. And it was there all along!

An example I have a number of audio devices and find that I was going to check in Settings - Sounds to see what is using what. Previously clicks START --> Settings --> System --> Sounds. Now Windows key and Sounds.

Work in progress. "Everything that can be invented has been invented" might be true in this case though (and I know the quote is apocryphal from c1900)

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 20 - 11:09 AM

I'm glad you shared that, Nick! I rarely use that part of Windows with the large icons, though when I set up a new computer I make sure to delete the ones I don't want. I'll have to play around with that and see if I can make it more useful. So far I've only used it to open the programs that for some reason I can't send as a link to my regular old-fashioned desktop that I always favor (and that I have set up with a background image of the surface of Mars and tracks from the current rover.)

Bill Gates counts to 10.

1, 2, 3, 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, VISTA, 7, 8, 10. That list leaves out the wretched mess that was ME (Millennium Edition), a version of 98, that came on one of my computers. I did a dual boot system with NT from work until they finally released all of the drivers for the equipment in the computer and then I killed off ME.)

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Nick
Date: 19 May 20 - 12:34 PM

SRS - I think you may have the same 'old familiar desktop' syndrome that I have suffered with for a lot of years.

So I put what I want on the old familiar desktop. And then it gets too busy. Because of ignoring Windows 8 I ignored the whole charm thing and the big brash icons. I had also always disliked single click program launch from earlier versions in that I inevitably opened things by mistake and forgot to hover over so that I could access right click etc

But I think this current thing seems to give me all the things I want.
* A single click launch for programs
* A constantly available desktop that the Windows key gives me access to - and more critically - allows me to do an action (eg launch something else like Sounds in the previous post) and then returns me back to exactly where I was
* It may mean I use Desktop pins less. ie the program that lets me keep a window on top (like Notepad) while I work on a document or program under it. I have always been surprised that it is not standard in Windows as I use it everyday several times
* The ability to group things together under headings. Rather than grouping them by position on my desktop
* Flexibility of adding and removal without any real work

I'll show you what I mean. Here's a little video of me doing some stuff in real time. I have notepad pinned because I can grab the link to the program I'm using that I like ScreenRec. Free and 2gb of online storage to share videos and things like I am doing now.

Then I launch it with windows key and keep going (ignore the fact it was open already to record this!). Then launch a track I'm doing in Reaper but open sounds to check what it is currently using and then come back here and finish typing.

Works for me! A little video that shows me typing the last couple of paragraphs. My previous set up would have been clunkier I think. Workflow now I have started to use Windows 10 a bit better...

And as I only really want to back up active things I only want to save things in very few places on the local machine - desktop and documents. Photos and music go elsewhere

I disliked ME and Vista. And 8 was a route along the way! I should have taken more notice looking back.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Nick
Date: 19 May 20 - 12:39 PM

And a very clean desktop. Perhaps I'll add a picture but tend not to because of photoediting.

Probably be full of rubbish by next week.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 20 - 03:42 PM

Isn't that clever! And I like your screen recording program. I suspect Bill_D will have some great software to share also if he discovers this thread.

When Win8 came out I decided I needed to figure out what in heck it was doing so I worked through a couple of the Lynda.com tutorials to see how to use it, and that helped. It was designed specifically to be used on touchscreen computers and tablets, but people resisted using the touch screen, making the design seem a bit overblown.

I use a double-wide monitor setup and they're both 27", so a lot of real estate to work on. The thing that drives me nuts is when something happens that suddenly lines up all of my icons in one place and the order and distribution has to be recreated. The newer desktop seems to eliminate that occasional catastrophe. I still have a couple of generations back folder that was a virtual desktop where I kept all of those links in one place. I just opened it - it's a folder in my documents and is a series of folders and individual files, photos, pdfs, etc. I should probably look through it and delete it, though I still use it for a couple of things (out of habit.) Those folders are linked to my main desktop.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Jun 20 - 08:23 PM

Here is information about the June patch rollout:

Microsoft June 2020 Patch Tuesday fixes 129 vulnerabilities.

Microsoft has released today the June 2020 Patch Tuesday, the company's monthly security updates.

This month, Redmond engineers have patched 129 vulnerabilities, making this the largest Patch Tuesday release in the company's history.

The good news is that despite this month's bulkiness, none of the vulnerabilities have been exploited in the wild before Microsoft released patches today (no zero-days).

System administrators who manage large fleets of computers -- such as those deployed across enterprises and government organizations -- are advised to test today's updates for any bugs and deploy them as soon as possible.

Malware authors are known to keep on eye out on Microsoft's monthly security updates, select the most useful bugs, and patch-diff the security updates to find the exact bug that Microsoft fixed -- so they can weaponize it as soon as possible.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Joe G
Date: 09 Jun 20 - 08:29 PM

Hope it all goes well for everyone! Touch wood I have had no problems with updates but many have sadly

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 10 Jun 20 - 07:26 AM

I'm updating to Windows 10 ver 2004 on my spare PC to get an idea of the time it takes - so far just over 1 hour to "get things ready" and get to 98% "downloading"!

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 10 Jun 20 - 11:33 AM

It's a long haul, at least 2.5 hours.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jun 20 - 12:09 PM

I have it download in the background and the computer tells me that it's going to restart during off hours (unless I choose to do it manually). I don't know how long it took to download. Knock wood this update went okay so far.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 10 Jun 20 - 12:22 PM

It restarts several times in the final stages.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 10 Jun 20 - 12:33 PM

How long left for win 8.1 support...???

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 10 Jun 20 - 03:18 PM

Already stopped!!

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 10 Jun 20 - 04:41 PM

Of course as with any major windows upgrade you are left with a "windows.old" folder 25gb+ !!

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 11 Jun 20 - 04:54 AM

Update to ver2004 took just 80 minutes on my work pc, but it's very fast.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: GUEST,JoeG
Date: 11 Jun 20 - 05:12 AM

I had an update yesterday but only a minor one. Mine must still be in the tubes!

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 13 Jun 20 - 05:31 PM

Be careful you don't get hooked into opening a Microsoft account!

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jun 20 - 05:50 PM

I've had one for years, but I NEVER let the computer use that to set up the logon. Microsoft can be very bossy and sometimes a bit tricky with the logon placement.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jun 20 - 12:47 PM

It sounds like this current rollout has caused some difficulties for some users of the Chrome browser. Windows 10 May 2020 Update is now causing problems for Google Chrome users

Windows 10 May 2020 Update is causing more problems, this time for those using the popular Chrome browser, who are being logged out of their account every time they reboot their PC – and this is reportedly happening with other software too, like Battle.net.

As Windows Latest spotted, there are multiple reports of this bug on Google’s own support forum (linked here: 1, 2, 3) and on Reddit, with anecdotal indications that this gremlin not only affects the Chrome browser, but also Battle.net, and possibly Edge.

May 2020 Update is blocked by this security feature

How to work smarter from home with Windows 10

We solve 100 common Windows 10 problems

So it seems that this is an issue with Windows 10 and the latest upgrade, rather than with Chrome. Browser cookies are apparently being deleted randomly, and users are being logged out of their account(s), and forced to log back in repeatedly.

The rest is at the link. I don't always include the promotional links tucked into articles, but in this instance some of them might be helpful. They're the bullet items.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Nick
Date: 15 Jun 20 - 02:23 PM

I had done my now routine drive clone so thought it would be a good time to move to the latest version - 2004 - so I did. Especially as something had stopped Jamkazam working out of the blue somewhere round June 12th. It had been working fine for months up until then. I had put it down to the security update (not the 2004 update) that I installed on 12/6/2020. But when I went to look for it it's not there anymore! I presume that once the machine is updated the previous updates aren't relevant? Recent update history

So far I have had no problems with Chrome or anything and the only thing that is different is that Jamkazam is now working again!

If I get any hassles I will let you know but so far no problems I'm aware of. And I have my clone to fall back on just in case so feel reasonably relaxed. AND don't need to work out why something had stopped working.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Nick
Date: 16 Jun 20 - 07:52 AM

So far so good but somewhere along the line I came across a Windows feature that I never knew existed. It relates back to our desktop discussions a while back. I never knew that you could show the desktop by moving your mouse to the end of the start bar. Probably in the far right corner of the machine if you have the start bar in the normal place. I used to use WINDOWS-D to show and hide but I didn't know that the little gap existed or when it first came in... I looked on my other Windows 10 machine on 1909 and it is there. It may have been there forever. Show /Peak Desktop

Though why I would want to see it when there's nothing on it!

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Joe G
Date: 16 Jun 20 - 10:20 AM

Just tried that - I didn't know that either but I am sure there is loads of stuff I don't know - and will probably never need!

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: DaveRo
Date: 16 Jun 20 - 10:54 AM

Anybody use multiple desktops?

Windows 10’s multiple desktops

One of two useful innovations I found in Windows 10 when I updated our Win 7 laptop back in 2015. Not as good as two monitors - but cheaper.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jun 20 - 12:16 PM

That's funny! That oddball button has been there and I've never had the curiosity to look at it (or the accidental triggering of it). I'll have to poke around. I did set up a separate administrator account in case I want to work on a completely different clean area (and I don't know if it will access existing files in my main administrator account.)

Discipline is to use the computer as a user and not an administrator so less stuff can affect the computer if something malware-like happens while you're working, but I would rather just set things up as I need them.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Nick
Date: 16 Jun 20 - 01:07 PM

As said above, I have always tried (usually failed) to not use desktops as dumping grounds. I did look at virtual desktops when I was at work but never really used them as I don't think they save do they? I can see that they might be good but I think it would confuse me. And I think, as they look pretty much the same that I might get lost and panic and lose something! But that is probably based on a lack of info.

I am actually really happy with my current start menu which seems to work for what I'm doing these days. If I find I'm using something often I just add it to start and because it's organised into little sections I just add a little icon to a section if I find I use it much.

I added Device Manager today so it's one click away as I found it fiddly to get to. I came across a lovely little registry hack (I am as certain as I can be that it is safe) which allows you to Pin ANYTHING to Start. So any document, program, system process etc can be pinned to start and become one click away once it's run as long as you can create a shortcut to it. Once you have created the shortcut the option to Pin to Start appears and you can then delete the shortcut and it just works.

The hack is create a reg file from this in notepad (don't do this if you don't fiddle about in the registry) and run it as Admin. If not admin it will just do the particular User.

*****

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFileSystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{470C0EBD-5D73-4d58-9CED-E91E22E23282}]
@="Pin to Start"

*****

It gets overwritten when Windows is upgraded but (of course) there is a pintostart.reg pinned to the start :) So WINDOWS key - one click and it's done. I have definitely adapted to launching everything from WINDOWS - choose program/file/resource/system file and only occasionally launch things from Taskbar or one of the very few things on my desktop. I particularly like being able to access the Settings - Sound/Device Manager/Display/Clocks and Stopwatches etc/Power and Sleep/Windows Update/etc - via WINDOWS key and a single click

Perhaps oone day I'll use it right :)

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: EBarnacle
Date: 19 Jun 20 - 10:47 AM

Yesterday I complained to the makers of Minesweeper that their add on the bottom of the screen was not removable and interfered with play. Apparently they had had other complaints, as they responded that they were correcting this and things would be back to normal in a few hours. Kinda nice when a corporation takes responsibility and follows up.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Jun 20 - 01:45 PM

There was something about that latest Windows update that is messing with programs that have to load and logon to accounts. My Quicken software seems to be dead in the water and Chrome is very slow to open or to offer results and open them. I don't know if this is tied to the reported story from ZDnet: Windows 10 2004 glitch: Microsoft admits bug breaks Storage Spaces, corrupts files

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: EBarnacle
Date: 20 Jun 20 - 01:51 PM

Followup to June 19: Minesweeper now works almost as before the recent improvements. Now, it plays the same but as soon as you win, an ad page jumps up every time. This is differs from the other free games on line, where the ads only come up after several plays.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Nick
Date: 20 Jun 20 - 03:30 PM

You could vow never to finish a game and you would be ad free

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 07 Jul 20 - 03:46 PM

I was happily using Windows Edge (Legacy) until a Windows update last Saturday which left me with the hideous Edge Chromium, an abomination which cannot be deleted. Now I don't do cannot be deleted!!

Fortunately this link describes how to restore old Edge Legacy Browser

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 07 Jul 20 - 03:49 PM

Ah, best to do a system restore to before the recent update after first disabling WIndows Update, to stop it putting the latest update back!

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: DaveRo
Date: 08 Jul 20 - 03:18 AM

Careful: I think that article is old - from when you had to install Chromiun Edge yourself. One of the comments says it no longer works.

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows 10-what's happening with rollout
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 08 Jul 20 - 04:39 PM

It's working for me.