QI = Quoziente intellettivo (IQ in Italian). I shouldn't enter argument that I have no time to manage :-S

Even though....

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/07/30/windows-10-privacy-settings/

Windows 10 IS a piece of shit. Jesus fucking Christ, are you really cool with a PC operating system that assign you a "unique advertising ID" to track the hell out of you? I'm not, and I won't, ever.

Yes it does affect indexing. Since any shortcuts outside that 512 limit cannot be displayed on the start menu, they get dropped from the index. The directories those shortcuts point to will get indexed, so you can still launch things by going directly to the executable in the file browser through search.

Do you use Amazon? You have a unique advertising ID. You are also aware that you can change your unique advertising ID, as well as not allow it to be used, right?

1) What part of 'average users can't use or won't know about separate admin tools and forum scripts' and 'downloading and configuring lots of crap makes life hard to IT staff' is hard for you to understand? At this point I can only assume that you are deliberately ignoring my point.

2) Fair enough - but most users aren't able to adapt to significant visual changes, since they rely on visual cues to tell them what to do. And sometimes the changes aren't solely visual, they're actual changes to workflows which is a whole other ball of ugly wax. Until you've had to walk a middle-aged manager though accessing the file server for the 5th time, you really don't understand how hard computers are for some people.

3) Yeah, and that's helpful. But it's still not the same as the easy, obvious Win7 functionality of Let People Install Their Own Crap.

Also, group policies need all the computers to be in a group. Someday I'll get over the PTSD and start talking about the previous IT staff here. I now assume they were constantly drunk. Anyway, sorting out the PC administration took a backseat to recovering from the server fire.

TL;DR
Speaking as an overworked IT admin, WIn10 does not look like a good bet at this point. The Update changes are on a long list of items that mean I'm going to lose time I can't afford just to get people back to productivity, for no real feature gains that anyone here cares about.

Speaking as someone who is interested in computer security and maintainability, MS's decision to start locking options down and integrating online functionality at a basic level without providing easy ways for average users to disable it leaves me very wary. It's a lot of small changes that add up to MS not respecting user decisions and making possibly bone-headed choices based on assumptions I disagree with. If I wanted that I'd get a Mac.

That's not even remotely the same thing. When ti's a website that you have to opt into it's bad enough, when it's a OS that you're largely forced to use and subsequently have to opt out of, it's ridiculous.

People shouldn't have to be on the look out for these sorts of things, they should be able to trust that MS is going to do the right thing. But, then again, when has MS ever done the right thing? They're pretty much poster boys for abusive practices followed with little or no punishment.

Yeah, but I can see why people are upset over having an OS tracking you in that way. OSes have a lot more power and access than a single website. There's tools to manage Amazon or Google tracking like No Script, but that can't really work with the OS.

This kind of decision really screams that MS is using their OS to bruteforce users into the MS online services / sell user data - that's what everyone who tracks users for advertising does, after all - and it's extremely uncomfortable that a paid operating system would do this.

Look at how many people aren't happy that Android does this. They put up with it because Android is cheaper, but lots of people install firewalls, root, etc. Also, security is a big marketing point for Apple right now. MS seems to be going the Android root but still expecting people to pay for Windows (the free upgrade is time limited and only applies to a certain group of people - the default is still paid licenses).

Having worked in IT, here are the possible scenarios
1) Your users are incompetent bufoons. Your IT guy sets the computers, and he makes sure they are set up correctly. Automatic Updates will be set to on.
2) Your users are competent tech users. They ask the IT guys to set the computers to their liking.
3) Your IT is incompetent. You are screwed.

I have. A background in education does help, since you shouldn't tell them "Click this icon" but explain what they are looking for, and where it may be found. If you lack the patience, the "Give me 5 minutes and I'll do it myself" is a valid solution as well.

Group Policy Editor has existed for more than 15 years. Anyone who wishes to call himself an expert on computing should really be aware of it.

? You mean the Workgroup "WORKGROUP"? Because that's the only group my computer is on, no domain, nor anything else.

Go to MDL, spend a couple of weeks reading, then deploy Win10 in one sweep. If you are the IT admin, you should be the one that says when Win10 is ready to be installed, unless the "IT admin" is just a title, and someone else makes the decisions. In that case, you have my sympathy.

P.S. Disable the admin account and give the people a restricted one. Will save you quite a bit of headaches, especially if you reply to any requests about programs with "That may be a security risk, please file a formal request so I can check it, and if it passes inspection, I may install it".

Hello there!

Will have to double check the default settings (and their description) when the next computer in the house asks to update, but I do recall that I didn't have to dig that hard to find it. It did say something to the tune of "Click next if you want personalized ads", but memory is faulty.
But yes, if you go "Next, Next, Next, Install" in the installation screens, you will run into trouble, no matter what you install.
You are right. You wouldn't want your OS to be the one to announce to your father that you are pregnant after all.
(link for clarification)

Linus, is that you mate?

Take the average Joe and give him a PC with a popular distro installed and Cinnamon DE with an XP/7 theme. Average Joe will not notice that he has Linux until he will try to install some crap that will not work.

How did you do it?

There are a lot of people who aren't computer savvy at all but who are also not incompetent buffoons. Do you also know how to perform heart surgery, publish a textbook, and write a legal argument? No? OK then. People specialize. Often, their specialty does not involve knowing how computers work. I've done customer support for years, and sometimes people just don't or won't remember. But I still have to make sure those people can do their job, without their job turning into my job. It's a balancing act. :/

We are on automatic updates. Seriously, the real problem with update adoption is that people refuse to turn off their PCs, so the updates never get a chance to finish installing.

As for the rest - we're suffering from a combination of 'previous IT was incompetent / uninterested' and 'New IT can't do everything for everyone while also developing mission-critical software'. And yeah, I'm not the one who makes the final decisions. We also don't have any formal processes (see: previous IT was uninterested in this stuff).

Win10 shows that MS's strategic direction is one I don't really agree with - so I don't particularly want Win10 at all, although some of the features seem nice - and I really don't have time to manage an upgrade right now. I may revisit after the October update that's supposed to polish stuff up. We do need to stay with modern operating systems.

That's what I thought, I just deleted over 1000 things from the start menu that were pretty useless so now it should be good once it's re-indexes. Thanks!

I'm sorry, did you just compare running a script to heart surgery? Because being unable to run a script does make you an incompetent buffoon. Finding the script may be a bit harder, but that's why you ask for help if required.

Scheduled tasks to the rescue. Reboot every Saturday at 23:59. Notify the users, ask them if they'd rather have the reboot at a different time. Or just say that every midnight the computers will reboot.