New
#260
I'm not much of a MWB fan, and of course you might guess I'm going to tell you why...
After an AV scan I ran once with the program now known as "Defender," that Microsoft now includes with Windows (this was many moons ago when the Earth was new), I decided to install a copy MWB I had received with some-odd promotional from somewhere and run it just to see what Defender (wasn't called "Defender" then, I'll repeat) had missed, if anything.
So I did, and I was shocked and somewhat mortified to see MWB pop up a frightening screen that said in glaring letters, with klaxons and bullhorns firing loudly in alarm through the speakers--woke the neighborhood!--
"MWB has discovered *FORTY-TWO* (42) Possibles! What do you want to do?" after which I was given the choice of 'suicide by huge explosion', or 'irradiation of current hard drive for 10,000 years', or 'Deleting the Possibles' and then finally....last but not least..."examining each incident manually." The fonts that MWB gave me for these choices are approximated here--but you get the idea. It seemed that what the program was least interested in having me do was to examine "each incident" manually, so that was the option I picked.
My first thought was that what is now called Defender must be a big pile of poopware if it overlooked 42 viruses that MWB caught on the first run--but then, you see, I was somewhat naive then, and had thought that what an AV program was supposed to look for was positives instead of possibles, and viruses instead of, well....you'll see...Silly me.
I examined the first "incident" and it was identified by MWB as "a partial text string"...that it found in the registry--it was text--plain text--as follows..."and the yellow horse....over...grapefruit." [Quote, unquote] That is what MWB found and ID'ed as a "possible" virus or malware program. Yes, uh-huh. But it was neither--it was just text, and a partial registry text string at that. No code, no virus, no malware. Anywhere around... Silly me. That's what I get for thinking, etc....
As I had already known, "partial text strings" in the registry are simply "partial text strings" usually left behind by a program install or a program uninstall or a web page, etc. They are nothing else but that--and are not "possibles" for anything else. Period...
Long story short: the next FORTY-ONE (41) POSSIBLES identified by MWB as harbingers of the end of my life on earth were *also* "partial registry text strings." Yes, indeed--every single one of them--as I laboriously discovered by manually examining every incident MWB had flagged as a "possible." There were not only *no* "possibles"--there were no viruses or malware programs, either. Not a single one. Just...text here and there in the registry.
By now you can probably imagine what I think of MWB. It turned out that my little experiment had actually proved that the software now known as Defender had missed nothing at all--because there was nothing there. I did not know that MWB was *also* a "partial text-string finder" because if I had I probably would not have wasted my time installing it... I didn't want or need a partial text-string finder--I had *wanted* to install an AV/AMalware program!
Ok, here's the rub: "Orphaned partial text strings can be found in probably every registry of every Windows installation that uses a registry, anywhere in the world at any time. Programming an AV program to seek out such text strings and ID them as "possible" viruses or malware programs is highly dishonest and completely unethical. It was done to create the impression in the mind of n00bs everywhere that "OMG just look at what MWB found that AVprogramX completely missed!" Most n00bs, of course, would not examine each "possible" manually--nope, they'd just say "delete them all right now!", believing that MWB was at least 42X better than the program they had been using which now they would never, ever use again! SIlly them.
This was the day that the whole anti-virus program scam--er, field opened up for me!
It is *solely* out of a sense of civic duty to my fellow man (and ladies) that I repeat this story! Feel free to repeat it as often as you like with my blessing...! I deem it worth knowing.
The list of most used app has place for six apps. When Windows has been installed and user has not yet used any apps, the default placeholders on list are in my opinion about the best possible selection, showing those an average new user might want to check first. Get Started to show what's new in Windows 10, Feedback Hub to provide feedback and check that given by other users, People for my contacts, Sticky Notes, and File Explorer to be able to browse my files.
Maps is the only one I think is not really thought through, maybe Mail or Calendar app would be better. Anyway, six placeholder apps needed, six native Windows apps shown. Can't see what's wrong with that?
To say that this is a marketing ploy, sneaky way to advertise Microsoft apps, is quite a strange comment.
If a user is not happy with default placeholder apps, simply turn the whole Most used list off in Settings > Personalisation > Start, or remove unwanted items from the list:
Keep removing items until the list does no longer visually disturb you:
Kari
I don't see where my comment is strange. MS is trying to get new users to use or at least try certain apps.