Windows 10 - introduction to 1607

I recently upgraded a Windows 8.1 laptop to Windows 10 Fall Update version, otherwise known as Windows 10 1511, and have been working through the various ways to harden it, and producing a series of web pages about the hardening processes.

I have moved on a bit, and have now upgraded the laptop to Windows 10 Anniversary Edition, otherwise known as Windows 10 1607.

Actually to say I upgraded it is not correct - as with 1511, I downloaded the iso image, and did a clean install of 1607.

Then I some hashing around with partitions, system images, and more new installs, and have now ended up with a dual booting laptop - I can run the 1511 version of Windows 10, or the 1607 version.

Even better, they both activate.

Ideally I would have two desktop machines instead of one dual booting laptop, as it would make it easier to do comparisons between the two, but it isn`t really an option.

Graphic drivers on 1607

Now I don`t know if it was by design or by accident, the iso image for 1607 doesn`t include the Intel HD Graphic drivers that my laptop needs, the installation just provided a very old default Microsoft graphic driver.

After a lot of trying things, I eventually discovered that if I boot up into 1607, and then get the driver manager to go look inside the partition containing the 1511 installation, it raked through this partition, found the Intel drivers inside that version of Windows, and installed them.

Now I am usually quite rude about Microsoft, but I must say that I very impressed that a running version of Windows 10 can go and rake through another non-running version of Windows 10 - not an installation media, an installed version of Windows - find the right drivers, and install them. That`s clever.

Apps on 1607

Apps on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 1511 were organised in the same way, and if you didn`t want the apps that Microsoft provide, then a couple of lines of Powershell commands would delete them.

However in Windows 10 1607, the apps have been configured differently, and the Powershell commands don`t work anymore, they don`t delete them.

So at present, I still have them. It is possible to change the ownership of the folder containing them, give yourself rights, and delete them, however that leaves all kinds of registry entries still alive, and updates will just re-install them, so it isn`t a good solution.

Windows 10 1511 has Powershell version 5.0, and Windows 10 1607 has Powershell version 5.1, so it may be that there are ways of un-installing them through Powershell, but so far I haven`t succeeded. I only have a minimal exposure to Powershell.

Other differences

There are a significant number of differences between 1511 and 1607, and there are loads of web pages about the differences, so there is no point in me reciting them here.

However some of the pages were written about development versions of the Anniversary Update, not about the actual live version, so some of the information out there is wrong.

In addition there have been several cumulative updates for 1607, and they could well have changed things again, so 1607 is a bit fluid.

Depending on your point of view about privacy, one of the significant differences is that Cortana has got itself a bit more built in to the operating system, and it is getting harder to disable it if you don`t like what it does with your personal data.

At this point you could really say that Windows 10 is designed to maximise the amount of personal data that Microsoft can collect about you whilst you use your computer - Cortana is just a public face of respectability, by allowing you to use some of the data that Microsoft has already collected and pumped up to the Microsoft servers.

I am using Home edition of Windows 10, so changes to other versions don`t affect me, but from reading stuff on the web, it looks as if Microsoft are devaluing the advantages of higher versions, to the extent that in a commercial environment, you are going to have to use the Enterprise version of Anniversary Edition, the inbetween versions are effectively being downgraded.

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