Windows 10

Anyone know why the display on Windows 8 is off center to the left? and how do you fix it

I am all Jelly here.  Glad to hear it's up and running.  Please let us know if you run into any issues.

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By offering free upgrades to Win 7 & 8 users, it appears that Microsoft wants to bring everyone into the new age of computing. I for one, am not a fan of what the industry foresees as subscription based remote Apps via the cloud and built in backdoor access for user "manageability". User beware! This is more to the progression of "control interoperability" than it is towards "user operability".

Windows 10 is in the vein of a long term OS that receives changes as M$ sees fit. After a company gets so large and controlling, they become like an individual who gets too big for his britches. It becomes more about controlling and managing, while "providing" becomes more or less secondary. I see the days ahead when a person will have a base operating system offline, but will need network connectivity to do more of the things they desire. Subscription based Apps will be in the cloud and you pay the admission price for access to them. Will your browser be in the cloud?    I dunno.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it unless someone proves otherwise!... I see this as the path to Big Brother on steroids...

Yep. This definitely seems to be a long range strategy in the making since, who knows when; but it's been in the air for a few years now.

That would be a dream for developers in the timeline when Win10 is the only supported Windulls OS. I imagine there will be an outcry for manufacturers to port drivers to Linux, elseways driver piracy will pop up. If and when Linux becomes the new fad for multimedia PC users, I think it would be hard for them to ignore. We'll see who the good guys are at that time. Only a handful have allowed their drivers to be hacked - to date.

Midas is using Linux as the OS for their digital consoles. I've used the EMU 1820m with Ubuntu Studio, whereas EMU released their driver code to developers, but it's limited to 24/48k. I'm about to get it switched over to Linux Mint 17 (LongTermSupport). Still relying heavily on VST(i) and kinda feel meh about Ladspa plugins. But, there is a feeling of freedom while working in that environment. It seems like RME gave the OK for their drivers to be ported - not sure.

I'll only go Win10 if there is some amazing hard/software I can't live without. If I do, I'll pull the plug on network connectivity and forgo updates when I sense the cloud is taking over.

Still hanging onto the older PCs & OSes that work with the hard/software I love. I keep parts in stock to rebuild those systems if needed. I'll probably do some builds soon for newer systems based around Win7, when I feel those companies you mentioned are intruding too much to bear. If an App is in the cloud, I don't need it. I won't go along quietly!

Being forced to go online for software usage with shady client/server software is the biggest safety threat of all IMO.
Online services are also not safe from being hacked at all.
Both is part of the Apple problem. (Well, and that they simply didn't care for a long time, because they probably thought that using a unixish kernel would keep them on the safe side...
But really, Bob is right, Apple is miles behind MS.
We can see what threat it is to rely on external networks with large connectivity to the internet from recent attacks against e.g. Sony, where networks could be blocked, so customers of legally purchased software could be locked out of usage, in this case it was their gaming networks...
Even bank networks are not safe, as seen end of 2014, when a group of russian hackers broke into banking networks and stole millions online over several months...
On your home PC, the biggest threat is still opening emails from unverified senders and allowing html loading of ressources, which can be easily avoided. Never got a single malware or virus this way in years using thunderbird. Browsers can be safely used in sandboxes/virtual machine, i use firefox for this. Since these are open source software packages, security holes can be fixed transparently. Add the well made (since Win7) and standardly integrated defender antivirus and firewall, and you are set.
You can achive a pretty high grade of safety on a Windows machine today, probably only surpassed on a well made Linux distribution, if at all.
If you rely on cloud computing or even running only parts of the software in the net, and any problem of the software "provider" or even your internet access provider can shut down your complete production *anytime*. I worked for "Moto" for a while, and system downtimes *are* a negative production factor. I had admin access for quite a few global systems, working 100% online, and it's no fun to deal with this kind of obstacles regularly...and certainly i would not want to do this, if i had a small business without plan B ... no matter what they tell you about the advantages, mobility etc...
YMMV.

Well, AFAIK patches against the shellshock bash bug came out pretty fast.
Which is possible due to beeing open source.
Problem was/is: Due to the fact that it's an extremely widely used linux package, it is used in an immensely high number of devices including embedded designs. Forget about everyone updating softwares/firmwares/whatevers in all places. Many people are not even aware they use something with a bash shell when they turn a black box on that runs in their WLAN or "can connect to the internet". Last thing i read was that this could have been/is the first bug in history that will lead to 1 billion cyber attacks or more probably, with the intent to use the infected devices for botnets ... oh well - its threat is (mainly) using your internet connection for illegal action ... isn't it nice to be forced to be online all the time? ;-)

Right, but honestly malware today is so sophisticated that the only thing that really works against it is smart behavior.


That means to always install system and application updates that patch newly exploited vulnerabilities, don't click on random links in email or on websites or open unknown files, and avoid porn and illegal sites, at least on one's work computer.  Even then you have to worry about phishing and new credit cards stolen before you even receive them. 

The alternative is installing heuristic anti-malware that can work against zero day threats but also cripple day-to-day operation of your computer. It's all a trade off.

From this standpoint, it doesn't matter as much which brand of computer/OS you choose for personal use, and servers will tend to use linux simply because it's designed specifically for computing clusters, free academic use, and different security protocols.

M$ is trying to get rid of as many copies of Win7, 8, & 8.1 as they can with this free "Upgrade".

I don't know... At what point after updating the Windows update component will M$ start downloading pieces of Win10 for installation, or integrate it into Win7 & 8?   ...If a person is set up with Automatic Updates and has elected to go with the upgrade, will they wake up one morning with Win10 installed?

Since you have Win 8.1 on another disc, I would be wary about any additional updates to it; if you wanted to keep it, that is.

I'm not going to update the WU component until after this Win10 upgrade offer is over. I want to keep this disk as Win7 exclusively.

Well, I went ahead and upgraded one dual-boot system drive from its windows 8.1 disk image. This took all of 40 minutes with windows update. I'm impressed! Now this is a latest generation computer with a Mutec MC-1.2 USB2 digital audio interface that was only introduced a few months ago so it is a very new driver. It's hard to say what would happen with older drivers.

So far, so good! The OS overhead on the computer is noticeably less than with windoze 8.1. All of my settings were carried across and it updated all of the drivers but the Codemeter dongle. I think a lot of people are going to be going for this. I've still got my 8.1 for backup but this is looking great.

That sounds good, Bob. Keep us informed on how this is working out as the patches roll out.

Yesterday, I actually found myself telling a customer how to upgrade to Win 10, lol.