WaasMedic Agent Exe stopping me from working

"Shut Down", as far as MS is concerned, has two meanings. Since Windows 8, in their wisdom, they, by default, gave as Fast Start, which in their terms, is a hybrid between full shut down & hibernate which means you never actually shut down, so computer never has a chance to fully clear out memory and refresh itself. Initially this caused problems with numerous apps as they depend on a full shutdown. First version 8 computer I had, Norton was installed, than began to have problems, this was eventually solved by switching off Fast Start, at the time, many reports of same problems encountered with various. apps.

Being old fashioned, always do a full shut down after a session, could never see the point of sleep or hibernate, when the computer is on, I am using it, may have the occasional 20 minutes or so break for a mental refresh but as soon as finished doing what I was doing, I do a proper shut down.

Last few weeks in addition to scheduled WaasMedic run on a Sunday, been having a second run during the week. This second run basically running a half day later each week, initially started on Monday AM, last week up to Friday AM boot, today at PM boot. Does that mean 3 weeks time Sunday will run twice, be twice the severity etc?. Today's run a bit more noticeable, slight delay opening apps for 3-4 minutes then another 3-4 minutes more or less back to normal. Bet this or a clone will still be present in Windows 11.

On Wednesday after booting and working for a while without obstruction, things became bogged down. Response to UI controls (mouse clicks, text box entry) started to take up to 30 secs to respond. Disk activity 100% active time with high I/O numbers driven almost exclusively by "TiWorker.exe". That lasted for over 40 minutes before an alert popped up saying I needed to reboot in order to finish an update. It was not outside "Active Hours" and I had never seen that type of behavior for a Windows Update before. But I did the restart (which took over 20 minutes) to find I was now at Version 20H2, bld 19042.1083 whereupon I had to endure another 90 minutes of 100% disk active time at very high I/O values (both read and write) with, of course "System" PID 4 being responsible for almost all of it. Now my morning boot to usable UI/ reaction times is up to 19 minutes (from the previous 'normal' of 13 minutes) with the heavy disk I/O and internet traffic.

I believe this indicates the following for Windows 11:

1. Hardware requirement that at least the SYS drive will have to be solid state.
2. Going "offline" will disable key features of the OS since MS wants you connected to their servers (spy AIs) at all times, to capture every keystroke and every bit of info from cameras, mics, gyros, temp sensors etc. that your system might incorporate. Things like "Search" - even for / of "local" content will require online connection to MS. That is why Edge is no longer removable / disable-able and is now the module that is used when you use the Windows Search Bar. All searches and results WILL BE REQUIRED to be logged on MS servers so you will not be able to use that feature of the OS unless you are connected to MS.
3. MS will continue the trend stated with Windows 2000 of removing more user controlability and customizing options from Control Panel in favor of the dumbed down "Settings" to give a more "we know better than you what you want to do" like Apple IOS. Further, the online connection requirement will allow MS to more quickly observe user "work-arounds" and registry hacks to gain back control, so they can more quickly push patches to defeat those workarounds a la SECDRV and WaasMedicAgent.
4. Constant connection to the Internet (i.e. MS servers constant real-time presence on your device) will be required for DRM checking for OS boot-up and use, MS and 3rd party product and media use; MS intends to be THE sole source for real-time DRM for music, print, photographic, video, software, and all other "objects" that anyone can monetize through "cloud-based real-time DRM and enforcement". Someone send you a copy of a song you didn't pay for? MS won't allow it to play and MS will forward your info to BMI etc. for prosecution. I.e. they will have warrantless search rights to your computer because you agreed to the Windows 11 license when you update to it and all its 'necessary components for ehnaced cloud-base user experience".

It is probably time to start looking at how many of your key applications will run on Linux or for which you can find a Linux-compatible replacement. We have until 2025.

YEAH, I'M IN A BAD MOOD!!!

M$ just rolled out a "fix" for the PrintNightmare security vulnerability that was recently discovered. It took quite a long time to fully install on my systems here and I read that it doesn't even fix the issue. The security issue is so serious they're even going to release a fix for Windows 7. Windows is simply a horrible operating system. I'm already running several distros of Linux. It's a far superior OS but lacks support from software developers but we're seeing that start to change. Several developers in the music production field have begun to release Linux versions of their software. Hopefully by 2025 Linux will have enough support to make Windows irrelevant.

For now you can go into services and disable the Print Spooler service until M$ pulls their head out and releases a real fix.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/07/microsofts-emergency-patch-fails-to-fix-critical-printnightmare-vulnerability/