A Rant: Win Updates and their frustrations.

We're disabling Web search immediately after a clean install and we never have problems searching Windows. Cortana is fast and efficient.

In order to get more accurate results in Search Windows, you should enable the following:

Settings/Search/Permissions & History/My device history = ON.

Helmut said:

"Linux has definitely has its own set of problems, but it’s perfect when your needs are web, email, YouTube and Facebook. I recommend it for older people who routinely get infected"

I am a real live "older person" and that is no more true for older people than it is for young ones, in fact the former's experience and caution puts some of them in to a rather better position.

I suggest you give something like Linux Mint a try. If you're familiar with XP, then you'll be right at home on Mint. When I setup a Mint PC for an older person, I put shortcuts to what they want to access on the desktop, show them how to shut their PC down and their usually GTG.

Helmut said:

"The core issue is that MS is leveraging the Start menu as a vehicle for displaying/advertising apps and search through Cortana (and all other assistants) exist to gather info about me under the guise of being an assistant."

Paranoid nonsense - There is no advertising on my Start Menu, as I said have it like Windows 3.1 from 20 years ago.

Have you ever seen "App suggestions" in the start menu or apps that you didn't install appear without your blessing? Unless you disable that, then you certainly have. I do not care how subtle and unobtrusive they may be. They have no business there.

Helmut said:

MS is not alone in gathering data to make an income how about Google and many others doing exactly the same thing.

People know what Google is hawking before they sign up for their services. Microsoft isn't known for making a buck off people's information. Using an OS for the purpose isn't acceptable and just because company X is doing it, doesn't make it right.

CountMike said:

It's part of Cortana's job, but you can exclude web search from it:
Attachment 168564

Ok now i got it, if i enable cortana it seem to work,
so to perform a proper start search, windows/cortana
need to collect data and also perform search on the internet/store
and dislpay app advertaising useful suggestions

Bree said:

All my Portable Apps have been added to Start, either pinned as tiles (as demonstrated by Kari) or put in the All Apps list by adding a shortcut. Anything that's in Start will of course be found in a search.

In the past .exe (and .bat and .cmd) were excluded from Cortana search results so I had to add shortcuts to start as you describe.

Thanks to this thread I retested and all are now found (as long as location is indexed).

I don't know when this changed but 2 years ago it didn't show these files for sure.
Program files (.exe) not found by Windows Search - Windows 10 Forums

One less script to run after clean install - thanks all. I should retest things more often :)

@Bree: WannaCry: Well StartIsBack does make connection to the internet, looking for updates...
Otherwise it's a totally safe system, that does not depend on anything.
But yeah, nothing is safe.
Still, I can name quite a few programs that are far more insecure than SIB, and those are left alone.
@Roy and a few: One does not need either Cortana nor Websearch to find anything.
Explorer by itself does a fine job, for web we have sommany engines, I prefer Google...
Some like Cortana and Websearch more, some prefer other methods.

Xogroroth said:

@Bree: WannaCry: Well StartIsBack does make connection to the internet, looking for updates...
Otherwise it's a totally safe system, that does not depend on anything.
But yeah, nothing is safe.
Still, I can name quite a few programs that are far more insecure than SIB, and those are left alone..

I wasn't commenting on StartIsBack (I don't use it, so I'm in no position to). I was making the point that unless we embrace change and go with the new versions of Windows 10 within 18 months of release the underlying Windows OS itself becomes a security risk.

Bree said:

I was making the point that unless we embrace change and go with the new versions of Windows 10 within 18 months of release the underlying Windows OS itself becomes a security risk.

Not only that (sorry I made part of your quote in bold) - it becomes a risk for others whether they use Windows or not.

If one doesn't make an effort to stop malware distribution (or actively decides not to by disabling all AV) then you are hurting others.

That is not right.

Bree said:

I wasn't commenting on StartIsBack (I don't use it, so I'm in no position to). I was making the point that unless we embrace change and go with the new versions of Windows 10 within 18 months of release the underlying Windows OS itself becomes a security risk.

Well, I used SIB on your to me unknown WannaCry (with such a name, who'd ever would want THAT app... XD)
I am all for protection, I can dig updates that are not intrusive in my visual or audible sensory systems.
But like decade-proven and tested things like the Win7 task bar removal?
And then that... Metro horror?
What if they figure next time, the windows startup tune should be a high pitched screaming baby, which you cannot turn off?
And some horrible picture of Trump which you cannot change?
What if they tell us, that from the next version, gaming no longer will be possible on the new OS, and NO, you have no choice but to go with it?
Fixing things that have no reason to be fixed, should be left alone.
Killing of drivers that are of the latest, and 100% compatible with the new build, another crazy idea they seem to be liking. :S

Xogroroth said:

...to me unknown WannaCry (with such a name, who'd ever would want THAT app... XD)...

Where were you in May this year? You obviously weren't on the Web.

Did you not hear of the largest ever worldwide Ransomware attack? No one asked for WannaCry - but they got it anyway. And all made possible by unpatched and vulnerable older Windows systems (but not the latest Win10).

Almost all WannaCry victims were running Windows 7