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PC1 in my signature updated with no issues so far, after making the usual Macrium Reflect backup beforehand, of course.

I see Microsoft have now “helpfully” added the word “System” to those unremovable icons on the Start Menu.

I guess they must have heard the many people who were complaining about these icons cluttering up the Start Menu but instead of providing a way of removing or hiding them they’ve decided to clutter things up even more by adding the word “System”. *sigh*

I’ll update PC2 tomorrow which I had Linux Mint on for a while but I’ve recently put Windows 10 back on it (using a Macrium image).

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

1 user thanked author for this post.

WCHS

Sorry, I meant to say “I don’t care if the apps themselves won’t uninstall” in my previous post.

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Alex5723

This one.

Cannot be uninstalled, icon cannot be removed from the Start Menu.

Same with the Settings icon on Windows 10’s (and probably 11’s) Start Menu and the Get Started icon on Windows 11’s Start Menu.

I don’t care if the “apps” themselves won’t install. As I’ve said – I just ignore them but I’d like to have a nice clean Start Menu with no unwanted icons (without having to use something like Open-Shell or StartAllBack and similar programs).

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Alex5723

I thought Microsoft said no more “features” were going to be added to Windows 10?

First we had Windows Backup (which I’ve disabled the Service for and I completely ignore – pity there’s still no way to remove the icon from the Start Menu).

Now we’re going to get Copilot (bundled with the monthly security updates as usual) which I’m assuming will also be impossible to remove with another ‘can’t dislodge even with an Exocet missile’ icon from the Start Menu.

No worries – I’m quite adept at ignoring stuff that I don’t want and cannot remove from Windows these days. I’m quite proud of the fact that I’ve been able to ignore this little guy with the red dot in Edge for ages. But I’m pretty sure I’ll get a popup or something before too much longer to remind me that it’s there and I should take some sort of “recommended action” with it. This is also something else that I believe is impossible to remove but I’ve heard that the latest Beta versions of Edge allow you to move it across to the other side of the screen if you want to. Great.

Oh, I’m wondering if the reason why Microsoft have changed their minds about not adding any more “features” to Windows 10 is because the take up of Windows 11 has been so dismal after 2 years?

And I wonder if they’ll eventually figure out why that is the case? (Hint: I believe it has a lot to do with lots of people not wanting to trash or upgrade perfectly good PC’s so they meet MS’s  quite arbitrary and ridiculous hardware requirements to run Windows 11).

 

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth, TaskForce141

Something else I noticed when installing this month’s updates.

When I rebooted the PC after installing the cumulative update I saw the message “Installing Features”.

What “features” would they be, I wonder? I was under the impression Windows 10 was not going to be having any more new “features” right up to end of support in 2 years time. Yes, I know MS ‘sneaked’ Windows Backup into last month’s updates (and I’m still annoyed that the icon cannot be removed from the Start Menu at least).

Unless :”Installing Features” had something to do with the Search box reappearing on my taskbar when I had it hidden? People who don’t hide the Search box may not have noticed anything different after installing this month’s updates?

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

Made a Macrium Reflect image as usual.

PC1 in my signature. Using Windows Update Manager (wumgr).

Couple of .NET updates which I installed first then rebooted. Then I had .NET 4.81 offered which I installed followed by one or two (can’t remember which) .NET updates.

Rebooted and then installed the monthly cumulative update. Rebooted again and I immediately saw that Search had been “helpfully” put back on the Taskbar with what looked like a giant ad for something alongside the box full of various nonsense that popped up above Search on the taskbar.

It asked “Do you want to keep this?” and I of course clicked “NO”. I have it hidden for a reason and I want it to stay hidden.

Checked to see Windows Update was “locked down” again and also checked my ShutUp10 settings to see if anything had been changed (it hadn’t).

Phew, this whole exercise took nearly an hour. Thank goodness I only have one Windows machine to bother with now, PC2 in my signature now has Linux Mint installed. So, I have one desktop PC and 2 laptops now running Linux Mint and my one remaining Windows PC would probably be joining them if it wasn’t for a couple of Windows specific programs that I use.

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

1 user thanked author for this post.

deuxbits

Updated PC1 in my signature with no problems so far.

“Windows Backup” was also installed of course but I’ll be ignoring it in the same way as I’ve done for the other PC I updated yesterday.

Just to be clear – I don’t really object to things like this being installed (even by stealth) because I can and usually do just ignore them if they can’t be uninstalled but what I do object to is these “unremovable” additions to the Start Menu because I like to keep a ‘clean’ Start Menu with no unwanted icons.

From what I’ve been reading on other forums some enterprising souls have been experimenting for some time now trying to remove these Start Menu icons with varying degrees of success. But, what usually happens is they end up breaking something else with their attempts.

As I said in my previous post, that’s 3 “unremovable” Start Menu icons I know of so far – the “Settings” icon in Windows 10, the “Get Started” icon in Windows 11 and now “Windows Backup” in Windows 10.

And, as I’ve already said – I really wish Microsoft would stop doing things like this.

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

Oh, by the way… regarding “Windows Backup”.

I thought Microsoft wasn’t supposed to be adding any more new “features” to Windows 10 between now and October 2025?

I guess I’ll have to file that one away alongside things like “Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows ever”.

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

Updated PC2 in my signature, Windows 10 Home (after making a Macrium Reflect backup, of course). I went back to Windows 10 from Windows 11 on both PC’s about a month ago, by the way.

No problems so far. However, I notice “Windows Backup” has been added to the Start Menu and it seems to be impossible to remove, just like the Settings icon in Windows 10 and the Get Started icon in Windows 11. I really wish Microsoft would stop doing that.

I guess “Windows Backup” will just have to be something else to ignore until someone finds a way to get rid of it – after I disabled the service which was set to Manual. And I’ll probably need to check from time to time to make sure it stays disabled. I also checked to make sure OneDrive hadn’t “magically” reappeared (it hadn’t). I always remove OneDrive and most of the other bloat (XBox, etc.) after a clean install of Windows.

I also removed the useless (to me, at least) Microsoft Update Health Tools which had made yet another reappearance with this month’s updates (wonder how long it will be before that becomes impossible to remove?).

I also updated my browsers (Edge and Firefox) and checked to make sure no more useless bloat had been added and turned on by default – especially Edge – and I’ve now locked down Windows and the two browsers until next month.

I’ll update PC1 tomorrow and see how that goes.

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

1 user thanked author for this post.

deuxbits

wavy wrote:

On the bright side FireFox is getting closer to Edge.

Just imagine – if Mozilla could have afforded the marketing ”clout’ of Google and Firefox had been included as an optional install included with just about every free piece of software – even motherboard driver install disks (and ticked to install by default) – over the past 10 to 15 years then I’m sure Firefox would be the #1 browser today and not Google Chrome.

Over the years I’ve had quite a few not so computer savvy family and friends asking me “what’s this Google Chrome and how did it get on my computer?” because they’ve obviously just “clicked through” without reading (as most people do) during the installation of software (even motherboard drivers as I’ve mentioned above).

And I’m guessing that each Google Chrome install (whether the PC owner is aware of it or not) counted towards the total number of Chrome users.

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

b wrote:

Microfix wrote:

Result: the Edge update burden is gone

What update burden? It’s automatic in the background.

Not for me it isn’t.

I don’t allow Edge, Firefox, Thunderbird email, all other software and even Windows itself to update automatically.

Oh, I forgot to mention earlier – because I have a Standard User Account for everyday use it means I have to go through and check Edge’s settings twice to see what’s been added (and turned on by default) every time there’s an update – I have to check the Standard User Account and the ‘default’ Administrator Account which was set up when installing Windows.

Twice the “fun”!

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth, Microfix

“Microsoft Edge is starting to annoy me big time”

Actually, it’s been annoying me (and presumably many others) for quite some time now.

What is it with these constant, almost daily browser updates? One only needs to look here to see how ridiculous browser “updates” for the 3 ‘main’ browsers have become these days.

https://www.tenforums.com/browsers-email/

I don’t use Google Chrome and never have but I can see from there that it’s just as annoying with it’s constant updates as Edge is with Firefox coming in third (but rapidly catching up on the other two).

I understand that security updates are necessary but (in the case of Edge especially) the majority of “updates” seem to be just adding more useless bloat which most people will probably never use and is always turned on by default of course.

As I said, I mainly use Firefox but I do keep Edge updated but it is starting to get very time consuming to go through all of Edge’s settings after an update to see what extra bloat has been added and turn it off.

It really seems to be a competition to see which browser can add the most (mostly useless) bloat and then claim that “our browser is better than the others”, isn’t it? I wouldn’t be surprised if job security and keeping workers ‘gainfully employed’ has something to do with it as well (this also applies to Windows itself and most other major software too, I’ll bet).

Also, (and yes, I’m also looking at you, Firefox) I don’t need a new tab opening up every time there’s a major version update telling me”Your browser has been updated to the latest version” and/or “What’s New”. Edge is also extra annoying in this regard because the new tabs don’t usually open after Edge is restarted following an update but one or two restarts later.

It’s getting to the stage where I’m going to implement a “Browser Patch Day” for Edge and Firefox and just update them once a month, like “Patch Tuesday” for Windows and keep them ‘locked down’ in between patch days.

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Microfix, Cybertooth

PC1 in my signature (the “supported” one) now updated with no issues so far.

Both PC’s now ‘locked down’ Windows Update wise until next month before the inevitable “Preview” updates start rolling out, I am not and do not want to be an unpaid tester for MS or anyone else. I can usually hide them with Windows Update Manager (wumgr) of course.

One of these Patch Tuesdays I am looking forward to MS finally fixing the ‘bug’ which has been in Windows 10 for years and has carried over to Windows 11 where USB connected printers ‘disappear’ from the list of available printers if they’re not switched on for a week or so.

The drivers are still there and the printer(s) reappear when they’re switched on again but it’s a bit of a nuisance when the default printer changes to Microsoft Print to PDF after the USB printer ‘disappears’ and you haven’t noticed and you then wonder why nothing happens when you try to print something (the default printer needs to be manually changed back to the USB printer after it ‘reappears’ when you turn it on).

I do remember reading something a couple of years back where MS apparently have some idea as to why this happens but they don’t know how to fix it so far. Sounds about right.

Perhaps they might want to consider devoting a bit more time and a few more staff to finding a solution to this instead of adding more and more pointless junk to Edge? But, I’ll leave my rant about browsers (Edge, Firefox and Chrome especially) and their never ending weekly ‘stream’ of  (mostly unwanted and useless) updates for another time and place.

 

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

Not really any specific reason.

Perhaps I don’t really trust MS with what they might consider to be “malicious software” because I seem to recall in the early days of Windows 10 a lot of people were having issues with non malicious software like CCleaner being removed by Windows with no warning whatsoever.

I don’t think it was the Malicious Software Removal Tool that was doing it though – from memory it was happening during an upgrade to the latest Windows 10 version or upgrades to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or 8.1 but I would still prefer to be safe rather than sorry.

 

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.

1 user thanked author for this post.

creem

Crash Test Dummy #1 here.

Did the updates for “unsupported” PC2 in my signature with Windows 11 Home after making a Macrium Reflect backup first (of course).

Had a .NET update, the usual Monthly Cumulative Update and a Microsoft Defender Update.

Don’t know if there was a Malicious Software Removal Tool update because I have those blocked.

No problems apparent so far. No “unsupported” message or anything like that. Will connect up “supported” PC1 tomorrow and see how that goes when I update it.

PC1: Gigabyte B560M D2V Motherboard, Intel i5 11400 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Professional 22H2 64bit.
PC2: Asus H81M-PLUS Motherboard, Intel i3-4160 CPU, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Graphics Card, 1x Samsung 870 EVO 250GB SSD, 1x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Windows 10 Home 22H2 64bit.