... on my PC, to help me unlock the bootloader and root a cheap Android phone that I bought a few months ago as a spare smartphone.

I had to make changes in the registry before I was allowed to install the USB driver that would allow me to proceed.

It turned out to be a multi-day project for me to get past that initial hurdle, which was supposedly the easy part according to online instructions that I read about rooting an Android phone! Yet the later steps were the easiest for me, thanks to Windows 10 being such a pain about it.

Edit: By the way, Microsoft obviously doesn't want anyone using torrent software either! At least that's pretty easy to get around, with permissions granted through Defender. But you're right that those issues never came up in the past!

I had to disable fastboot as well, because it corrupted other drives I had connected to the system when I dual booted. I can't say it made much of a difference in booting time anyway. At least it didn't complain about me doing that. I'm using Pro, perhaps that was the difference.

... installed on it.

Then I chose the free upgrade to Windows 10, after Microsoft no longer maintained "Microsoft Security Essentials" and such. But it's definitely a more limited version of Windows 10 Home edition.

I've always had some animosity towards this stuff, especially the seemingly inevitable problems that I encounter while trying to maintain my cheap-ass lifestyle of not buying the latest technological upgrades until it's absolutely necessary.

I don't really know if that's the explanation for my Fastboot / USB driver issues, though. All I know is that I kept getting a "You already have the latest driver" message from Windows 10, which would NOT allow the Fastboot commands to work, until I finally took drastic measures and made some registry changes. (Which I wrote down to reverse those changes if needed, but I've had no further problems anyway.)

If I could only LOVE computer technology, like so many computer science majors that I met in school years ago, I probably could've performed quite well working in that field. But I've always had some hatred for it!

Edit: A true expert probably could've found an alternative solution. I'm more like the people who seek various suggestions when their car is behaving strangely.
I just happened to come across a message board that offered the registry solution. Most suggestions, to other people experiencing similar problems, were "use a different computer, dude."

I'm the same way wrt upgrading computer equipment. I still use my laser printer from 1992 and won't buy a new cartridge eater until I can no longer get the cartridges refilled (and I fear we're just about there). My "smart" phone is from 2008 and my main desktop CPU/Motherboard is from (I think) 2012.

I did actually study computer science, but I doubt I would choose to do so if I were the age I was back then now, as I don't think computers are much fun anymore. My first CP/M computer (Kaypro II) was so basic that I just about personally understood literally every byte in the operating system.

These days, I barely feel like I'm the one in charge of my own technology anymore. Modern smart phones in particular, have trained their "owner" to work for them rather than the other way about.

OK, rant over.

It's become so complicated, with various participants involved, that it's not much fun to me either.

Edit: And I think the big players have been conspiring to limit opportunities for users.

for free from giveawayoftheday dot com in March 2020. It was a year license.

I think giveawayoftheday used to be great a couple of years ago, when they had some excellent users posting reviews and were less sucking up to the software providers.

Anyway, there was an update somewhere along the line, where Loaris went bad or rogue or whatever. And they started posting false positives all over. Like flagging my host file for malware because I had an entry in it to prevent linking to a malware site.

Oh, and suddenly after months it decided it didn't like Nirsoft tools and others.

So, yeah, I hear you, Ronny.

Needless to say, I uninstalled Loaris and I'm sticking with Malwarebytes.

I use the built-in Microsoft Defender, as well as Malwarebytes, Avast, and Spybot. The last one has the immunisation feature that blacklists known scam sites by listing them in the hosts file as 127.0.0.1

I helped out an elderly, not particularly computer-savvy, friend who'd been scammed by uninstalling some totally unneeded anti-virus software he was paying for and re-enabling Defender. I would have installed Malwarebytes and Avast as well, but decided against it because of the continual nagging for subscriptions. They're not needed, but he almost certainly would have bought them anyway with his history of continually paying unneeded charges. I copied over my hosts file to provide the immunisation required.

It's shocking to see the average person's Win 10 machine out there with all the crap, nagware and browser "notifications". It's almost unusable!

It forced itself onto my ex's machine and really screwed it up.

That's why I make sure I have a WIN7 machine in the mix. Actually it's my go to for a lot.

I've found Win 10 quite tame-able, the first necessity being installation of Open Shell (a redo of the old Classic Shell).

Download: https://open-shell.github.io/Open-Shell-Menu/

Once you are in a familiar environment, start turning off and uninstalling - warnings, fucking cortana, most inbuilt apps, MS cloud etc.

If you are the only one using the computer and it's not going to be tampered with - don't set a password or a Microsoft account with pin or anything else - at least until you have it set up and running the way you like.

Win 10 actually has an amazing ability to run very old games and programs. Compatibility mode is a serious improvement. You can also run ancient installers in compatibiity mode - not just the installed programs.

I understand your using a Win 7 machine these days - I kept XP on my main desktop until it was ready for embalming. I was forced to up to 10 because internet functionality was decreasing rapidly. Firefox made no more upgrades for XP, meaning that I couldn't play videos on most sites, very few add-ons worked and in general it was a disfunctional mess. I hated 7 - removing the 'Up' arrow did it for me.

I still have 8.1 on a micro computer that has one job - to play videos with VLC. I had to gut the OS to make it useable.

So please consider upping to 10 and getting yourself used to it before 7 becomes unusable - and it will. I actually think that once you have it under control, 10 is an excellent OS.

I do have a couple of win10 laptops. They aint bad, but I specifically purchased my win7 as one of the last win7's available at Staples in 2015, in response to MS's bad behavior in forcing Win10 onto my ex's puter. I ain't gonna change it any time soon. EVERYTHING works and I even made a copy of the OS hd in case of a crash or ransomware. And I copy all my data to an 10tb external and disconnect it.

As for Firefox, it's not the lack of updates that got me mad. I'm at ver56 on my win7 machine. 57 caused the Addon Apocolypse so I downgraded that and was able to restore my addons. I neeeeeeeeeeeed my Status4evar. I also use Waterfox Classic a lot since it allows all the old addons too.



I guess I hold a little bit of a grudge when it comes to upgrades.