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Microsoft Installs New Software Without Permission
Futurepower(R) writes "Even though I have Automatic Updates turned off, on August 28, 2007, between 3:49 and 3:51 AM PDT, Microsoft installed new files on my Windows XP computer." Nine files are updated on Vista and on XP SP1, a different set of on each, relating to Windows Update itself. Microsoft-watch.com's Joe Wilcox and ZDnet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes confirm the stealth update.
Block M$ from having an interwebs connection and update from windiz, works even if they decided to ignore your settings.
They fitted George Orwell's coffin with rollers so he could turn over more easily years ago.
Under cygwin, you can type:
/cygdrive/c/windows/system32/wuapi.dll | grep 7\.0\.6
strings
If you get back something like:
7.0.6000.381
7.0.6000.381 (winmain(wmbla).070730-1740)
7.0.6000.381
then Microsoft has secretly updated you.
My blog
because a large majority of people dont patch windows and i need to test my software with the least common demoninator to ensure it works on all systems
TFAs only mention XP and Vista, but I have Windows 2000 (it will be the last Windows I ever own, and I'm just keeping it running until my end-of-year trip to the USA, when I'll buy a Macbook) and was surprised when I woke up one day this week (either the 11th or 12th of September) and found my computer showing the "got restarted and waiting for somebody to log in" screen. Before I had a UPS, that happened now and then, but since getting a UPS, that shouldn't happen unless we get a major power failure that lasts longer than the several minutes my UPS's battery gives me. That hasn't happened since I got my UPS, and I noticed that other things around the house showed no signs of power loss, despite my computer having been restarted. /., I thought I might have discovered what happens, but TFAs only talk about XP and Vista.
When I logged in, Windows Update informed me that it had installed updates. That's hard to understand, since I've had Windows Update configured for a long time now to ask me before installing anything. When I saw the item on
So was what happened to my computer (running Win2K) the same thing? Did others with old versions of Windows have the same experience?
"It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too." --Eugene Wigner
This was definitely without my permission, and raises the question about who has control over my computer, me or Microsoft. If Microsoft can put files on my computer without my knowledge, then it is really Microsoft's computer, which is control that I find extremely objectionable.
Rubbish.
It's just as accurate to say you own a copy of Linux as it is to say you own a copy of a book.
In neither case do you own the copyright for the item in question, but you do own the copy you have.
You own books, don't you?
Why doesn't the gene pool have a life guard?
Sorry for replying to my own post, but further reading suggests this isn't nearly as bad as TFSummary makes out. If you follow the links to the stories on the other sites, and read the comments and links given there, a lot of people are suggesting that this is only updating Windows Update files when you visit the Windows Update site, and not in fact a push of arbitrary changes at all. There's so much hype and FUD flying around this discussion that it's hard to see the wood for the trees.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Well, I can anyhow. You've apparently bought into the entirely retarded idea that criminal organizations are free to impose any sort of demands on you at a whim and you're somehow magically bound by them.
The fact is that nobody is bound by the deluded crap MS puts in their EULAs unless they choose to bind themselves.
Ratchet back the aggression level there.
And there are plenty of cases that hold that you are free to enter into a license agreement with a company when you pay them money for software. See the long list of "shrinkwrap agreement" cases. For example, ProCD v. Zeidenberg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ProCD_v._Zeidenberg ("The issue presented to the court was whether a shrink wrap license was valid and enforceable. Judge Easterbrook wrote the opinion for the court and found such a license was valid and enforceable."). In other words, software companies make their product available according to the license. If you buy it, you've voluntarily chosen to enter into those terms and you are bound by them.
It's the same as buying a car. Yes, you are free to go buy a car from a dealer with no terms and conditions attached if you can negotiate that deal with the dealer. Or, if the dealer says "look, this is a brand new concept car that's not available for sale yet -- you can buy it, but you have to keep it in a closed garage and you can't take the bib and diaper off it until we tell you" then that's also a completely legal contract if you agree to buy that car. You don't get to tell the dealer "yes, I'll follow your terms" and then turn around and say "I own the car, I can do whatever I want." You entered into an agreement with the dealer and you are bound by it.
The courts have said the same is true for software. If you don't like the license terms then don't buy the software. You can argue that copyright should trump contract, but that's not how the law has worked so far. Maybe your argument is even the better one -- but it's just not how the US courts have worked. Find a client and try to change the law.