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Microsoft Forces Desktop Search On Windows Update
An anonymous reader writes "The Register is reporting that the blogosphere is alight with accusations of Microsoft forcing Windows Desktop Search on networks via the 'automatic install' feature of Windows Update — even if they had configured their systems not to use the program. Once installed, the search program began diligently indexing C drives and entire networks slowed to a crawl."
Since when did Microsoft care about pissing off its users? What realistic alternative do they have?
No they are merely testing, how far they can push their flock. One has periodically test these things to know how much you can get away with. Without precise knowledge of how much the users will put up with, they might be a little conservative and lose money they would have otherwise made. Further this will also raise the pain threshold of the users, once they get used to this level of pain, they will not see anything wrong with Vista.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
But they benefit from deliberately installing stuff on the computers of users who don't get pissed off.
Don't want people to download Firefox or Opera? Push IE7 as a critical update.
Don't want people to download Google Desktop? Push Windows Desktop Search as a critical update.
Probably the balance between pissed-off users and non-pissed-off users makes it worthwhile in the end.
Fabulous - my first Troll mod :) I actually felt I was making a serious point, although I guess I put it rather briefly.
People don't have a realistic alternative to Windows yet. It's not just a technology issue either. Microsoft only improve products when they face competition, and ensuring they don't have to do that is one of their principal business strategies.
Since Microsoft is (a) in the game of making money, (b) has a monopoly position in the market place and (c) continues to shut out competitors, then I contend that Microsoft don't care whether they piss off their users or not, and never really did care, except in those areas in which they are yet to dominate.
Pleasing users is not Microsoft's game. That's what their competitors have to do.
QA of patches is very difficult. Lots of time pressure. Lots of things to check. Easy to overlook things. It's not like Windows and other modern Megasoftware have any coherent set of specifications that can be tested against. Or that test procedures would be perfect if there were specificiations. Or that a thorough test could be run in a realistic amount of time. This looks like yet another QA screwup.
Better to defer installing updates for a few days I think and let others Beta test the fixes. There's some risk to that also of course. But not as much. At least not in my estimation.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
As MSIE and WMP have shown this is a battle which third parties cannot win (at least in the consumer space).
Ya you're right; that's why FF isn't gaining any ground, and third party video players don't come pre-installed on dells and others!
No, the real issue is that you shouldn't be forced to get an update you didn't consent to.
There is a fix for the "Windows Update" problem. If universally applied, it will also fix the Storm Worm.
You know what it is.
Ya, I'm gonna go ahead and call bullshit. Our company has a WSUS server that I manage, and the update came in as Not Approved. So either he approved it, or set the server to auto-approve anything, which would be his doing as well. Or maybe he doesn't realize that its not an Installed % that it shows, its an Installed / NOT APPLICABLE % that the column indicates. In other words, I have 39% in that column, because the update doesn't apply at all to 39% of computers in our company. No computers to which the update applies have it installed.
Automatic Updates is the quickest way of deploying patches to a computer, especially if an IT department has to maintain hundreds of those PCs.
:-)
You must not be an admin.
Fortunately, this just adds to the number of reasons to switch to Linux.
Again, you must not be an admin. It's a job, not a hobby. When the powers that be tell you that they want certain software and that software isn't available on Linux that's the only reason you need not to switch. We serve the customers needs, not our own whims.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
This sounds like a dumb mistake
Assuming that this is just a dumb mistake, I don't know what's worse:
Oh, but to err is human!, I hear you saying.
Bollocks. When it comes to the operating system that runs the vaaaaaaast majority of desktops worldwide, quality counts. Or should.
I'm here EdgeKeep Inc.
The way that you have setup Windows update is different than most large corporate environments. YOU have configured the update service to prompt you when updates are available and allow you to choose which to install. In most multi thousand PC Windows networks you do not want to give users that power, you configure the service to install patches for security issues and ONLY those applications already installed. The ONLY those applications currently installed part is the problem. MS is forcing the installation of a NEW program which WAS NOT already installed. They are ignoring the choice made by the sys admins and installing the search application whether they wanted it or not.