UCyborg wrote on Yesterday, 22:09:

Night light on Windows 11 can be easily broken by breaking seemingly unrelated services. No idea how one is supposed to make the […]
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Night light on Windows 11 can be easily broken by breaking seemingly unrelated services. No idea how one is supposed to make these Microsoft's monstrosities silenter without breaking random shit in the process. The only services I messed with were:

• AppXSvc
• ClipSVC
• InstallService
• LicenseManager
• UsoSvc
• webthreatdefusersvc
• wlidsvc
• wuauserv

Glad I don't use night light (I cannot stand it). I am a bit curious about what breaks it, though.

Using Linux as my main OS. And Linux runs older Win9x DirectDraw based games very well under WINE, than Windows itself. As for DOS based games, I'm using 86Box, as a way of "tinkering" with classic "systems" and Dosbox. Still have Windows installed in it's own partition, but rarely boot into it. Like maybe 3 or 4 times a year, mainly to keep it updated. The only rare instance Windows might be useful is with certain games or applications that need too much workarounds to run under WINE or simply wouldn't run - which are becoming rarer and rarer nowadays.

Changed my main OS to Linux when Windows 8 came out and when Windows 7 support ended.

Been using Arch for a very long time. After getting tired of the "rolling" release cycles and unexpected changes that come with constant "updates" I changed to something more solid.

Currently using Debian XFCE in my laptops and Fedora XFCE in my desktop.

Used Mint personally for sometime, and still using in one of the office dekstops, but I find Debian is much more....reliable. And Fedora is even better than Debian when it comes to running current Steam games, because it's using more current drivers.

The thing about Linux distros is, once you got all your applications, say LibreOffice and others and installed them and running well, you don't need to update, and can actually call it a day. You can forget about future upgrades too. Unless if you're playing current games like Steam games in Linux, which may require newer files or drivers, subscribed to an updating 3rd party software, or when you require to update your web browser to keep up with online changes. But being human beings, we're always curious to upgrade to the next version. Whether or not current condition is already working good.

I don't think I'm quite ready yet to switch my main PC to Linux (I use it for work, and I have several applications I need to do my job that are only supported on Windows)... but I plan this year to install Linux on an old laptop my wife uses for web browsing, Internet, etc. If it goes well, I'd ultimately like to switch completely from Windows.

Malik wrote on Today, 08:04:

The thing about Linux distros is, once you got all your applications, say LibreOffice and others and installed them and running well, you don't need to update, and can actually call it a day. You can forget about future upgrades too. Unless if you're playing current games like Steam games in Linux, which may require newer files or drivers, subscribed to an updating 3rd party software, or when you require to update your web browser to keep up with online changes. But being human beings, we're always curious to upgrade to the next version. Whether or not current condition is already working good.

That is my main gripe with Linux. If I want to update 1 program or add 1 program or component from the distro-repository, then it will update everything that was ever taken from the distro-repository, including all libraries.** So then three fourth or my software is up to date and generally working well, whilst one fourth (my custom compiled packages) is then at risk of being broken in the process, because it relies on one or more older libraries.

One or two years ago I was quite satisfied with the Wine success rate. Also using Wine portable 6.5 where the current version had regressed. But currently several games/programs are non-working with Wine 10, and Wine portable 6.5 won't run at all, because it needs older libraries.

** Using Solus MATE distro. They had to enforce this all-or-nothing policy because they were getting library mismatches with the software they supply.

newtmonkey wrote on Today, 08:34:

I don't think I'm quite ready yet to switch my main PC to Linux (I use it for work, and I have several applications I need to do my job that are only supported on Windows)... but I plan this year to install Linux on an old laptop my wife uses for web browsing, Internet, etc. If it goes well, I'd ultimately like to switch completely from Windows.

So, I've quit dualbooting into Windows for my work, and instead just start up a Windows 10 virtual machine inside of Linux. Unfortunately my work is irrevocably tied into the Microsoft software development ecosystem, and it can't run in Wine at all. It's been a pretty good solution, especially since you never need to activate Windows 10.

Namrok wrote on Today, 14:32:

So, I've quit dualbooting into Windows for my work, and instead just start up a Windows 10 virtual machine inside of Linux. Unfortunately my work is irrevocably tied into the Microsoft software development ecosystem, and it can't run in Wine at all. It's been a pretty good solution, especially since you never need to activate Windows 10.

That's good information, thanks for adding that! The first step for me is to just get used to using Linux in the first place haha. Once I do that, I'll try running my software in a VM.

Malik: All my respect sir. I've always wondered how people use a distribution like Debian as their main workhorse when half of repository is out-of-date just the minute system is installed. But exactly for this occasion I've got MMC and few distribution installed on f2fs root (Debian including) as I need to test often some exotic things on various Linux distributions. I can only recommend. So you don't need to break main stable workhorse when there is a new version of something around. It is just like having operating system on floppy disk.

gerwin wrote on Today, 14:20:

That is my main gripe with Linux. If I want to update 1 program or add 1 program or component from the distro-repository, then it will update everything that was ever taken from the distro-repository, including all libraries.** So then three fourth or my software is up to date and generally working well, whilst one fourth (my custom compiled packages) is then at risk of being broken in the process, because it relies on one or more older libraries.

Hi gerwin, you should probably learn what is /opt directory used for. You can compile exactly any version of Wine you like right next to distribution version and use then both how you please. I've did it many times in past.

darry wrote on Yesterday, 23:13:

Glad I don't use night light (I cannot stand it). I am a bit curious about what breaks it, though.

I haven't dug into it. I forgot exactly which users on which service had Start permission and which didn't. There are some differences with INTERACTIVE and SERVICE accounts between services regarding start permission, so I just restored original registry settings and rebooted, permissions are under Security subkey of the service's key (eg. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\AppXSvc\Security).

I noticed that taking Start permission from users defined under AppXSvc service makes Explorer go down in the strange way when you open any file/folder's context menu.

Time synchronization with internet server is also a mystery since Windows 8. Service is not auto-started on boot and there are two scheduled tasks, mysterious "ForceSynchronizeTime" which action reads "Custom Handler" and it has two instances of "Custom Trigger".

The other task "SynchronizeTime" doesn't have any triggers, but its action is more understandable "%windir%\system32\sc.exe start w32time task_started". Still, something runs it periodically. Time is effectively synced every day on Win10 and Win11 at least, the service starts for a short time, syncs time then stops.

I did some tests few years back and figured if you put service on auto-start, then by configuring it through its registry, you can have longer period between syncs.

I didn't test to see if default syncing would stop by disabling ForceSynchronizeTime. Why cover up the schedule for time sync though?

UCyborg wrote on Yesterday, 22:09:

Night light on Windows 11 can be easily broken by breaking seemingly unrelated services.

Thanks for bringing this up to my attention. I couldn't realize why my screen was getting yellower every night. I must have enabled Night Light accidentally or Windows enabled it behind my back as it often does. I'm perfectly happy with the Low Blue Light filter of the display, don't need Windows to put another layer on top of it.