Windows 10 and now Windows 11

Mozilla has developed and implemented a way to for a User to make the Firefox browser the default choice that seems to have broken the “safeguards” Microsoft built to help stop malware easily getting a hold in a Windows system.

Mozilla have not yet explained in detail how they achieved this change that only requires a choice in the Firefox browser rather than the usual “Settings” steps required. This raises concerns about malware intrusion as this bypassing of the usual manual changes in Settings may allow malware to be inserted into the Windows system with much less effort and user awareness.

An article about this follows

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The counter point to this is Microsoft makes it easier for a user to select it’s browser product Edge as the default. Is it a level playing field?

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Edge is the default and it does have the push from Microsoft even when making a choice about changing to another preferred browser. Edge is becoming a better browser but that doesn’t make it the one that should be the default but aside from that many other MS defaults are setup on install that require a change if you want something else instead eg PDF, music, video, mapping to name some. None of those require the same steps as the default browser does though but they still do require manual changes. A level playing field, no it isn’t, but neither is Apple’s default to Safari as their browser.

The noted concern regarding the change from one browser to another is not around what choice you make or even the push by MS to their default Edge but rather the security implications about how Mozilla bypassed the manual steps needed to change defaults, if it can be done for the browsers does this imply that any default or indeed any choice could be automated in such a way that malware gets an easier path to installation and running. This needs investigation and necessarily patching those security holes.

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On the rare occasion I use Edge, it wants to be the default browser. But I just say no, and Firefox remains the default. I have never encountered this issue on Win10.

From a default Windows install Edge is the default browser, once you have gone through the steps of selecting another Browser as default then yes it is easy to keep Firefox as the default. If you use Bing as a search engine or you use Edge occassionally yes you will get the annoying requests to try Edge or make it the default, just ignore or choose no. What this concern is about is that Firefox from the browser itself bypasses the steps normally required to change the defaults. These steps are supposed to be because of Windows security to stop drive by and unwanted installs or unwanted default choice changes.

I had a Windows problem from hell this week.

It suddenly started with Chrome reverting to previous pages viewed and even back to the Chrome homepage.

Returning to the desired page would only last a short time before it happened again. Most annoying when trying to look at the Choice Community and the ABC News.

I tried all the suggestions I could find online to no avail but the problem continued until the PC would totally freeze.

I started using the backup drive until it wanted to install a couple of Windows updates after which it also started freezing.

I tried to do a repair using the copy of Windows 10 I have on a USB drive, but when it would get to the part where it wants either the Product Key for a new installation or click skip for a repair, it would not proceed any further. This happened with both SSD drives.

Inexplicably, the backup drive started behaving itself and I could not see that either of the Windows updates had actually been installed on it.

After allowing it to run successfully for a couple of days, I then ran Paragon disc copy to do a mirror image of the backup drive on the original drive.

I am now running on the original drive without any problems so far but I have absolutely no idea what occured.

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Try running error checking on the drive and check for bad sectors.

You can scan for bad sectors two ways:

  1. Right-click on your hard drive – select Properties – choose the Tools tab – select Check For errors – scan drive
  2. Open an command prompt window:
  • Go to WIndows Search (Magnifying Glass) – Type Command Prompt. Open the Command Prompt
  • Change to Drive to be checked by typing the Drive Letter followed by : Such as D:
  • Type (or cut and paste) chkdsk /F /R → press Enter

Note: 2. may not work on all machines or drives.

If there are bad sectors detected, Windows fix them but should block them from being written to. If there are bad sectors, may mean the drive is on the way out.

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Edge, Edge… oh yeh isn’t it that app for downloading Chrome (or viewing PDFs)? :wink:

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or Firefox

No, not even.

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When I restarted the PC the next morning, both SSD drives would freeze once again.

I removed both of them and swapped them in turn with the SSD drive in our Sony laptop and they both worked fine.and I then put the laptop drive in the PC and it had the same freezing problem, so it definitely is not a drive problem.

I have checked the RAM and swapped the power supply with the spare I have to no avail, and tomorrow i will remove and reinstall the CPU in case there is a bad contact with one of the million pins, after which I will replace the mainboard.

Of course, there are no new mainboards available for an Intel i5-4590 so I can either gamble on buying a used one online or just bite the bullet as usual and shell out for a new mainboard, CPU, and compatable RAM.

One is tempted to blame the mainboard manufacturers for creating this planned obsolence fiasco but it is obviously the CPU and chipset manufacturers who are holding the strings.

The CPU and chipset manufacturers such as Intel and AMD obviously know that their CPU’s are unlikely to fail before mainboards, but when they release new products, they know that the mainboard manufactures will have to update their products, thus leaving consumers in the lurch.

Imagine buying a new vehicle without any spare parts availability in just a few years?

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Have you read this blog?

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Not all Windows 10 computers will be able to be upgraded to Windows 11. You must have a TCM 2.0 chip in the laptop and or computer, and other factors may also make it also not be compatible for windows 11 upgrade. I have a Acer Desktop, it has a TCM 2.0 chip, I had downloaded a comparability, tool everything tested okay, but the CPU, was not compatible, and that was a windows 10 machine.

My HP laptop, I ran the compatibility software on this one, and it all past.

Many people are still using older machines, and even older versions of Windows, even if they say that they do not support it no more, it does not mean that you cant still use it. It just means that Microsoft is no longer making security updates and upgrades to that particular software.

Not to worry, Windows 10 users. Microsoft will be supporting this version until end of 2025.
That is a long time in terms of computer lifetimes.
Maybe no new features once Win11 arrives. Hooray is my opinion.

I haven’t looked at the market lately, but IT hardware prices have gone through the roof during the pandemic. Lots of people buying, along with factories having down-time due to infection. You may be better taking the gamble - although your old chip is old! There are some listed on Ebay.

The CPU has a number of pins for communication with the rest of the motherboard. Any time CPU designers come up with a new and fancy thingummy they need a way for it to communicate - so the CPU has pins to make sure it knows how to communicate with an SSD, and to communicate with USB devices, and to allow you to read the CPU temperature…

I am not sure how many pins my current CPU has, but boxes on the shelf show that my previous two were 1155 and 1151 respectively. No idea why some pins were dropped.

So it is CPU designers who are responsible for you needing to change motherboards on a reasonably regular basis. If I remember correctly AMD changes its pin layouts less often.

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Well it’s only getting better from here… Win 10 loses support late 2025… Then bam. Windows eleven is here…

Boredom set in so I did a Win10 image and updated to Win11. It updated with a single glitch - manual install (via installation assistant) required ‘Run as Admin’ to complete. An error at 71% install is documented – apparently common. Starting again with Run as Admin validates the install files and proceeds, it does not start from the download again.

No obvious worries. Everything seems to work, It looks like some changes were made to improve consistency of menus and settings, and some just because they could. Microsoft’s intrusive nature is evident with Teams Chat being a default app - but it can be disabled and removed from the taskbar.

A few customisations did not carry across, notably text sizes and fonts for Windows, but nothing major - yet :wink: Most things work the same while some are different in how they work or at least how they are presented.

It might be heading toward an Android-like management experience…lots of similarities of approach in ‘System Settings’ even though there are clear differences between them…

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Microsoft appear to have had an epiphany?

The second part of the offer comes standard with any new version of Windows.

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Since it was posted a while back and not everyone reads the whole novel…

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I was doing some reading a couple of days ago, about that more laptops and desktops may gradually be added to the compatibility list, as some computer manufactures are making some bios up dates for certain chip sets, that go back to series 6 and 7 cpu’s, so nto much use running out buying a new computer just yet. So far I can upgrade only one computer out of the 3 to windows 11

Don’t rush to Windows 11, Windows 10 will still be supported for at least five years. Anyone moving to Windows 11 at the moment should consider themselves to be a beta tester for Microsoft, at best.

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