Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-26533925-20151203194947/@comment-27312360-20151205204916

''Wow, I didn't know any of that about Windows 10. I might have decided against the upgrade if I had. Actually, I'd rather have a Mac, but they are too pricey.''

BunsenH wrote: There are a number of reasons not to use Windows 10. In terms of computer security, it's appalling.

If you have entered the password for a wifi system, it freely shares that password with every other computer it "talks" with, unless that wifi server's name is altered to a pattern that M'Soft recognizes as opting out.

It automatically downloads and applies software updates, with no user control over which updates to apply. The only control you (may) have is when to reboot your machine -- assuming, of course, that you don't have a crash or other involuntary reboot. You can't opt out of an update and you can't usefully revert one, because if you try, your machine will just go ahead and apply it again. If you have a bad interaction with other software (which does happen from time to time), you're completely out of luck. This can go so far as to make a machine unusable.

If your machine has downloaded an update, it then shares that update with other Win10 machines it connects to on a network. This is efficient, from Small'n'Limp's point of view. From a user's point of view, your machine is being used as a server, using your bandwidth.

I am not joking or exaggerating about any of this. I have Win7, and it took me some effort to get rid of the "software update" that kept nagging me to "upgrade" to Win10. (M'Soft's issuing that as a "system update" was another crappy creepy thing.)  I will not use Win10 if I have any choice in the matter, and of course I won't let any Win10 machine use my home wifi.