Using Win10 Pro "Warn me before installing apps from outside the store" instead of Win10 S?

How about using Win10 Pro’s settings “Allow apps from the store only” or “Warn me before installing apps from outside the store” instead of Win10 S. Wouldn’t’ this give one the security of Win10 S plus those Win32 apps one needs?

Seems to work even for self-contained .exe files like portable apps. See How to Allow Only Apps From the Store on Windows 10 (and Whitelist Desktop Apps)

Conversation 9 comments

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    13 August, 2017 - 4:06 pm

    <p>You're not considering the possibility that Windows 10 S could have been designed for MSFT's needs, and MSFT needs a lot less non-store Win32 software but a lot more Windows Store software. Allowing users to install non-store software no matter how much those pesky users may believe they need that software doesn't serve MSFT's interests.</p>

    • jimchamplin

      Premium Member
      14 August, 2017 - 2:07 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#166389"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>That does not address the question. Regardless of Microsoft’s motives, Windows 10 S <em>is </em>more secure and safe from rot. </p>

      • hrlngrv

        Premium Member
        14 August, 2017 - 2:41 pm

        <p><a href="#166552"><em>In reply to jimchamplin:</em></a></p><p>And less productive because the Windows Store's contents are insufficient for many Windows users. As for safety, tricycles are safer than motorcycles. For the sake of safety, should we ban all motorcycles and give their owners trikes?</p><p>Anyway, my previous comment was in response to the OP asking to be able to install just a few apps from outside the store. Off topic on safety, it only takes one tainted .EXE or .DLL to compromise a system. More to the OP's point, MSFT has no interest in filling the productivity holes in Windows 10 S. Would Windows 10 S be needed if MSFT provided a simple way for end users to put whatever Win32 software they wanted into containers? It's not difficult, just time consuming, to create virtual machines. Would it be an insuperable computer science problem to make it relatively easy to create containers?</p><p>From my perspective, MSFT's focus is the Windows Store, not users' safe computing.</p>

  • MattHewitt

    Premium Member
    14 August, 2017 - 9:21 am

    <p>I think it would give you the security but not necessarily the performance or the protection against "Windows rot."</p><p><br></p><p>If your system isn't new and you flip the switch, it only protects you in the future and not from the things that are already installed.</p><p><br></p><p>I could see a person doing this after a clean install w/ the official Microsoft image (not from an OEM w/ a bunch of crapware installed.) </p><p><br></p><p>That way you could install the image, and maybe Chrome, and then flip the switch and I think you would be mostly protected.</p>

    • jimchamplin

      Premium Member
      14 August, 2017 - 2:12 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#166475"><em>In reply to MattHewitt:</em></a></blockquote><p>It should protect the user from rot, as the registry isn’t getting worked over and useless files aren’t being spewed as if from a firehose</p>

      • MattHewitt

        Premium Member
        14 August, 2017 - 4:10 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#166554"><em>In reply to jimchamplin:</em></a></blockquote><p>I think I meant that it wouldn't protect someone from rot that had already occurred if they flipped the switch on a machine that had been used for a while.</p>

      • hrlngrv

        Premium Member
        14 August, 2017 - 4:12 pm

        <p><a href="#166554"><em>In reply to jimchamplin:</em></a></p><p>With respect to useless files, ever listed the contents of C:\Windows sorted by access time?</p>

  • Mike Cramer

    14 August, 2017 - 1:11 pm

    <p>A key difference is that Win10 S also strips out PowerShell, eliminating all sorts of scripting shenanigans.</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      14 August, 2017 - 4:08 pm

      <p><a href="#166534"><em>In reply to Donkey_Gas:</em></a></p><p>As well as the ability to remove Groove Music, Movies &amp; TV and several other bundled apps.</p><p><strong><em>ADDED:</em></strong> with Set-ExecutionPolicy set to Restricted, what scripting shenanigans would be possible?</p>

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