Windows 10 Upgrade (Part 5)
I'm shocked that I made it this far!
The upgrades to
Windows 10 are progressing at a smooth rate. With that said, there are
things that have to be taken into consideration when performing a OS
upgrade. The most important aspect is maintain good performance.
Students won't want to use a slow computer. Neither do I!
Increased Memory Usage
Upgrading the lab
computers from Windows 7 to 10 was a adventure in itself. I learned many
things along the way. For the most part, I know how to configure
Windows 10 very well now. Despite that though, new things are learned
along the way. things that help 10 perform even fast on older hardware.
Hopefully, our computers will get more RAM in time. Windows 10 will need it! I remember when 10 first came out, I troubleshooted some computers with the OS on it. These machines only had 2GB's of RAM. I said every profanity ever known to man under my breath. The OS is completely unusable with 2GB's of RAM.
Our Dell Optiplex computers each have 4GB's of RAM to play with. Windows 10 will run fine most of the time. However, things are a little cramp. To get the most of our 10 though, the computer really needs 8 or more GB's of memory in it. Buy that memory! 8 GB's is cheap these days. There's no excuse to do without it. Of one can afford a computer, they can afford the RAM upgrade too!
With memory upgrades planned, I can still get the most out of Windows 10 with 4GB's of RAM. In order to improve performance, I manually adjusted the swap-file size for Windows to use. One does have to exercise caution as setting the file too small with significantly hurt performance. However, even with a lesser amount of RAM, Windows tends to overcompensate, which leads to degraded performance as Windows will constantly scan the swap file instead of using the RAM first. Setting the file to a smaller size will still get the best of both worlds. The setting can be accessed via Control Panel| System|Advanced System Settings| Settings (Under the "Performance" section) and clicking the "Advanced" tab to click the "Change" button under the "Virtual Memory" section.
Check the "Custom Size:" radio button and type in the appropriate values for "Initial Size:" and "Maximum Size:". For the initial size of a computer with 4GB's of RAM, I went with the initial size recommendation. For the maximum size, I set the file limit to 2GB's (2048 Megabytes). There's no excuse to use Windows 10 with just 2GB's of RAM. Memory is cheap these days. Get that damn memory! For 8GB's, I would set the maximum swap file size at either 1 or 2 GB's. Manually adjusting the swap file size, if done right, can help with performance.
Hopefully, our computers will get more RAM in time. Windows 10 will need it! I remember when 10 first came out, I troubleshooted some computers with the OS on it. These machines only had 2GB's of RAM. I said every profanity ever known to man under my breath. The OS is completely unusable with 2GB's of RAM.
Our Dell Optiplex computers each have 4GB's of RAM to play with. Windows 10 will run fine most of the time. However, things are a little cramp. To get the most of our 10 though, the computer really needs 8 or more GB's of memory in it. Buy that memory! 8 GB's is cheap these days. There's no excuse to do without it. Of one can afford a computer, they can afford the RAM upgrade too!
With memory upgrades planned, I can still get the most out of Windows 10 with 4GB's of RAM. In order to improve performance, I manually adjusted the swap-file size for Windows to use. One does have to exercise caution as setting the file too small with significantly hurt performance. However, even with a lesser amount of RAM, Windows tends to overcompensate, which leads to degraded performance as Windows will constantly scan the swap file instead of using the RAM first. Setting the file to a smaller size will still get the best of both worlds. The setting can be accessed via Control Panel| System|Advanced System Settings| Settings (Under the "Performance" section) and clicking the "Advanced" tab to click the "Change" button under the "Virtual Memory" section.
Check the "Custom Size:" radio button and type in the appropriate values for "Initial Size:" and "Maximum Size:". For the initial size of a computer with 4GB's of RAM, I went with the initial size recommendation. For the maximum size, I set the file limit to 2GB's (2048 Megabytes). There's no excuse to use Windows 10 with just 2GB's of RAM. Memory is cheap these days. Get that damn memory! For 8GB's, I would set the maximum swap file size at either 1 or 2 GB's. Manually adjusting the swap file size, if done right, can help with performance.
Disable Fast Boot
Fast Boot was a
"feature" that was introduced in Windows 8.0. Fast Boot is essentially a
shutdown that "hibernates" the Windows Startup, so that when the
machine boots up again, the machine is ready to go. IE a Fast Boot!
However, many users have noted performance issues with Fast Boot. Also
there have been known issues with certain hardware configurations.
Fast Boot was enabled on our desktop computers by default. Since the lab computers are much more likely to hibernate, which saves the entire system state, there is no use for Fast Boot. Referencing the How to Geek article, Fast Boot was disabled on our desktops. Many users reported a slight performance increase when Fast Boot was disabled on desktop system. I've noticed a slight increase myself. Fast Boot is a feature that sounds awesome, but something that's not going to be used in the lab setting. Also, the computers perform Windows Update on a regular basis, which still require a complete, cold boot to finish the update process.
I linked the How-To Geek article about how to disable Fast Boot if you decide to turn the feature off.
Fast Boot was enabled on our desktop computers by default. Since the lab computers are much more likely to hibernate, which saves the entire system state, there is no use for Fast Boot. Referencing the How to Geek article, Fast Boot was disabled on our desktops. Many users reported a slight performance increase when Fast Boot was disabled on desktop system. I've noticed a slight increase myself. Fast Boot is a feature that sounds awesome, but something that's not going to be used in the lab setting. Also, the computers perform Windows Update on a regular basis, which still require a complete, cold boot to finish the update process.
I linked the How-To Geek article about how to disable Fast Boot if you decide to turn the feature off.
SHUT UP CORTANA!!!
Disabling Cortana And Windows 10 Privacy Issues
Disabling Cortana And Windows 10 Privacy Issues
It's now time to
disable Cortana. Cortana is a voice-activated digital assistant that is
enabled by default in Windows 10. This program starts programs and
manages them by using voice commands. However, our machines don't have
microphones, and since this is a lab, talking to the computer is a very
massive distraction. Cortana is built into Windows Search.
My main drive to disable Cortana was performance driven as to squeeze every ounce of performance from Windows 10 running on our hardware. Our Dell Optiplex systems are lower-end, and Cortana can be very resource intensive. The valuable RAM and CPU resources can be put to better use somewhere else.
With that said, disabling Cortana is also important from a privacy and security standpoint. Cortana collects personal data via the Windows Search. As noted in both the PrivacyTools.io and VanTech articles, this includes locations, contacts, calendar, browsing history, searches, etc. and phones them to Microsoft that is often use for data mining or advertisement, which is often shared with 3rd parties as well.
Cortana uses location and ad tracking as well. Often, many who upgraded to Windows 10 have created online Microsoft accounts for the purpose of syncing there settings across all of there devices. However, as lab computers, the user settings are confined just to these computers. There was no purpose to create online Microsoft accounts (even on a home computer, it's very hard to justify creating a online account for that matter). All the settings are stored locally and the student accounts are created as roaming profiles by Windows Server and stored locally on both the desktops and on the server as well.
As mentioned in the previous articles, the vast majority of the student settings are already defined by the group policy as defined by the server. Computer World has done a awesome article covering the various privacy settings within Windows 10 which is also linked below.
Cortana can be disabled in both Windows 10 Professional and Enterprise by the group policy. This was how I disabled it, along with various other search settings as well. As usual, open up a elevated Command Prompt, and issue the following command to start the Group Policy Editor:
gpedit.msc
This should launch the editor. As anything that involves messing with the Group Policy Editor or the Windows Registry, a System Restore Point should be made before proceeding with the changed. The PC Gamer articles covers the topic of how to create a restore point. The settings for Cortana can be found at the following with the editor:
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates,\Windows Components\Search
and look for the "Allow Cortana" setting.
Check the "Disabled" radio button, followed by clicking "Apply" and then "OK"
Several of the Windows Search settings are there as well. If you want to disable and enable some of these settings, then explore what they do. Several of them deal with web searches with Windows Search as well. I disabled this as well. Cortana can be disabled via the registry as well. I haven't gone down that avenue, as our lab computers are running Windows 10 Professional. I have linked to the articles exploring the registry option though if one goes down that path, along with the PC Gamer article.
Most IT professionals acknowledge that Windows 10 is horrible when it comes to privacy. I agree with them. Most of them tend to say migrate to Linux or some other UNIX-like system after Microsoft drops support for Windows 7. On paper, I do like this idea. However, this is often easier said than done, as I have to account accessibility and OS compatibility into the picture as well. Our students are conditioned to the Windows environments. Switching to Linux or some other alternate OS really isn't feasible.
As much as I like Linux, I can't recommended it for a end-user system. If I did recommended a Linux distribution, I would go for Ubuntu. However, Ubuntu isn't that regarded by these IT specialist that specialize in privacy either. Privacy is important. At the same time, accessibility has end-user have to be factored in as well.
Despite this though, PrivacyTools.io have a really good write-up about the various operating systems as well as the privacy issues in Windows 10. They provide several recommendations that I still feel are worth checking out. It gives us who are obsessed with virtual machines to try out some of these operating systems that are centered around privacy. the site also provides a download for W10Privacy, a tool that allows the various privacy settings within Windows 10 to be changed as well.
My main drive to disable Cortana was performance driven as to squeeze every ounce of performance from Windows 10 running on our hardware. Our Dell Optiplex systems are lower-end, and Cortana can be very resource intensive. The valuable RAM and CPU resources can be put to better use somewhere else.
With that said, disabling Cortana is also important from a privacy and security standpoint. Cortana collects personal data via the Windows Search. As noted in both the PrivacyTools.io and VanTech articles, this includes locations, contacts, calendar, browsing history, searches, etc. and phones them to Microsoft that is often use for data mining or advertisement, which is often shared with 3rd parties as well.
Cortana uses location and ad tracking as well. Often, many who upgraded to Windows 10 have created online Microsoft accounts for the purpose of syncing there settings across all of there devices. However, as lab computers, the user settings are confined just to these computers. There was no purpose to create online Microsoft accounts (even on a home computer, it's very hard to justify creating a online account for that matter). All the settings are stored locally and the student accounts are created as roaming profiles by Windows Server and stored locally on both the desktops and on the server as well.
As mentioned in the previous articles, the vast majority of the student settings are already defined by the group policy as defined by the server. Computer World has done a awesome article covering the various privacy settings within Windows 10 which is also linked below.
Cortana can be disabled in both Windows 10 Professional and Enterprise by the group policy. This was how I disabled it, along with various other search settings as well. As usual, open up a elevated Command Prompt, and issue the following command to start the Group Policy Editor:
gpedit.msc
This should launch the editor. As anything that involves messing with the Group Policy Editor or the Windows Registry, a System Restore Point should be made before proceeding with the changed. The PC Gamer articles covers the topic of how to create a restore point. The settings for Cortana can be found at the following with the editor:
Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates,\Windows Components\Search
and look for the "Allow Cortana" setting.
Check the "Disabled" radio button, followed by clicking "Apply" and then "OK"
Several of the Windows Search settings are there as well. If you want to disable and enable some of these settings, then explore what they do. Several of them deal with web searches with Windows Search as well. I disabled this as well. Cortana can be disabled via the registry as well. I haven't gone down that avenue, as our lab computers are running Windows 10 Professional. I have linked to the articles exploring the registry option though if one goes down that path, along with the PC Gamer article.
Most IT professionals acknowledge that Windows 10 is horrible when it comes to privacy. I agree with them. Most of them tend to say migrate to Linux or some other UNIX-like system after Microsoft drops support for Windows 7. On paper, I do like this idea. However, this is often easier said than done, as I have to account accessibility and OS compatibility into the picture as well. Our students are conditioned to the Windows environments. Switching to Linux or some other alternate OS really isn't feasible.
As much as I like Linux, I can't recommended it for a end-user system. If I did recommended a Linux distribution, I would go for Ubuntu. However, Ubuntu isn't that regarded by these IT specialist that specialize in privacy either. Privacy is important. At the same time, accessibility has end-user have to be factored in as well.
Despite this though, PrivacyTools.io have a really good write-up about the various operating systems as well as the privacy issues in Windows 10. They provide several recommendations that I still feel are worth checking out. It gives us who are obsessed with virtual machines to try out some of these operating systems that are centered around privacy. the site also provides a download for W10Privacy, a tool that allows the various privacy settings within Windows 10 to be changed as well.
Final Thoughts And Concerns
As a whole, the
Windows 10 upgrade has been very straight-forward and surprisingly
trouble-free. I am learning more about Windows 10. I am mostly
comfortable with it. With that said, more research and fine-tuning needs
to be done in order to get the most out of this upgrade and the
computers that it's running on within the educational setting. Hope you
enjoyed these series of articles. I don't know if there's going to be a
part 6? If not, then enjoy and have a (mostly) happy upgrade!
Articles of Interest
The Pros and Cons of Windows 10’s “Fast Startup” Mode: How-To Geek - https://www.howtogeek.com/243901/the-pros-and-cons-of-windows-10s-fast-startup-mode/
How to protect your privacy in Windows 10: ComputerWorld - https://www.computerworld.com/article/3025709/how-to-protect-your-privacy-in-windows-10.html
How to protect your privacy in Windows 10: ComputerWorld - https://www.computerworld.com/article/3025709/how-to-protect-your-privacy-in-windows-10.html
Operating Systems: PrivacyTools.io - https://www.privacytools.io/operating-systems/#os
How to disable Cortana in Windows 10 : PC Gamer - https://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-disable-cortana/
How To Disable Cortana In Windows 10: VanTech - http://www.vantechnj.com/knowledge-base/how-to-disable-cortana-windows-10/
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