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Windows 7 Kill Switch For IE Confirmed — For More Apps, Too
CWmike writes "Microsoft has confirmed that users will be able to remove its IE8 browser, as well as several other integrated applications, from Windows 7. Jack Mayo, a group program manager on the Windows team, listed in a blog post the applications that can be switched off. They include Internet Explorer 8, Fax and Scan, handwriting recognition, Windows DVD Maker, Windows Gadget Platform, Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, Windows Search, and XPS Viewer and Services. He explained that the files associated with those applications and features are not actually deleted from the hard drive. The public beta of Windows 7 does not include the ability to 'kill' said apps. But a pirated copy of Windows 7 Build 7048 includes the new removal options, and has been leaked on the Internet." (We mentioned the reported ability to turn off IE8 yesterday as well.)
> He explained that the files associated with those applications and features are not
> actually deleted from the hard drive.
Why not?
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
The killer is that these are all just specialized applications that should be easily installed and uninstalled, just like any other application. It blows my mind that they could be so entrenched that just removing them, or not having them installed to begin with, isn't trivial.
Whale
Which is it? One sentence says that the program can be "removed" and then it's explained that the program can be "turned off" but the files aren't deleted. That's hardly removing the product. It's equivelent to not using it.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
It also prevents them from being loaded, as the articles explain. If needed for API's that require them, or if you turn them back on, they're available, but otherwise don't get loaded.
> He explained that the files associated with those applications and features are not
> actually deleted from the hard drive.
That is stupid... The idea of removing something, is to reduce clutter on your system and reduce the support burden... If something is installed but not being used it still needs security patches. If it's removed, you no longer have to worry about it at all.
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I don't know that that's fair. When I came back to my computer after installing Ubuntu for the first time, I found a whole lot of garbage I didn't and would never want installed, and much of it I wasn't able to uninstall after the fact. But people want to be able to use their computer out of the box and not have to install anything. "People" being most people, not you.
Whale
Having installed IE8 just recently, I find it vastly improved (particularly in speed) compared to IE6 and 7. It is slightly amusing that Microsoft gives us the option to remove it now.
End anonymous moderation and posting on
I plan to buy a new LCD and I will choose something with DVI instead of HDMI just because DRM. As I don't have HDMI capable hardware I would like to kill DRM on my machine (don't watch TV so I don't have an HD TV either), If Win7 allow me that and after all the kids in their basements test the OS for hidden nasties and middle fingers from MS, I'll switch for Win7. I need 64bit addressable memory.
Besides some extra pins for audio, HDMI and DVI differ only in pinout. Electrically they're the same, and you can go from one to the other with just a simple converter. A monitor and computer with plain DVI can still use DRM if both support HDCP (and in the same light, HDMI can be transmitted unencrypted just like DVI is).
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
I switched to Gentoo a couple years ago, but I'm pretty sure when I was using Ubuntu I could remove just about anything.
You can implement HDCP (DRM used with HDMI) on DVI, and most new monitors with DVI do implement HDCP.
It's also possible to implement HDMI without HDCP, but it's exceedingly rare.
FYI, the DRM features of Vista/7 only seem to come into play when:
- Playing back DVDs with a "legit" DVD player (e.g. PowerDVD). VLC doesn't care about the DRM.
- Playing back Blu-ray discs (without a program such as AnyDVD HD)
- Playing back DRM-enabled Windows Media or Zune files
Basically, Vista DRM allows programs to query the audio/video devices and determine whether or not HDCP is enabled and whether or not unsigned drivers are being used. One easy way to "disable" the DRM features in Vista is to simply enable test mode (which allows unsigned drivers to be loaded). This, of course, will prevent WM-DRM, Blu-ray, and DVD playback - unless you use measures (such as VLC or AnyDVD) to circumvent the DRM.
Dude, it's a step in the right direction and you're irritated at them for it?
People have been screaming about this for literally YEARS and when something positive is initiated, they still get blasted for it.
Sent from your iPad.
Not only that, but having 2 apps to do the same thing is ridiculously wasteful and inefficient
Tell that to anybody who plays two MMORPGs, or anybody who uses two file sharing networks, or anybody who has Nano, vi, Emacs, and gedit all installed, anybody who has both Emacs and Lockjaw installed (they both include a Tetris clone), or anybody who actually puts effort into her MySpace profile (need to test on webkit, gecko, and trident). "The same thing" isn't always as easy to define as you might think.
The rendering engine for IE is used other places in Windows (like the help system IIRC). The same goes for others like WMP. The libraries are needed for other applications and the executable is so small in comparison that removing it rather than just disabling it makes some sense.
I am fine with this. If I decide I do need the app, it is nice to not have to find the install media or do a download. I am glad they have the ability to some what 'kill' the app. When I go to Windows 7, I will kill everything but IE (I have websites that require it that I need). This is at least a step in the right direction. They also are not installing some applications by default anymore in Windows 7, and you have to get them if you want to from the download site.
It sounds like Microsoft has decided to go along with the gag. The EU regulators, not one of which can do arithmetic with their hands in their pockets, seem to believe that there can be only one browser, one media player, etc. in Windows, and that having these installed prevents the user from installing anything else and making it the default.
The EU is threatening, as a last resort, to force Microsoft to make it possible for users to uninstall IE so that they can install something else and Microsoft's response is "No problem, it's done". This leaves the EU with its big threat defused.
Of course no one is going to bother uninstalling Microsoft applications--they'll just install competitive apps and click "Yes" when they are asked whether they should be the default--which is what they can do now.
If they do uninstall IE, a lot of people will be in for a bit of a shock when they click Help on one of the many applications that loads IE to present HTML help files.
I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
That's a vital point. IE's underlying APIs are published and available to developers. There is no way to know how many applications (in addition to Update) would be broken by completely removing IE.
I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
I plan to buy a new LCD and I will choose something with DVI instead of HDMI just because DRM.
Do you know what you are talking about?
The DRM is HDCP, not HDMI. DVI is compatible with HDCP, and most new DVI panels support HDCP over DVI.
If you go out of your way to find one that doesn't, you are just being a twit. Not having HDCP support just means you can't play HDCP content; it doesn't strip HDCP protection from a signal or anything like that.
If you don't play and don't intend to ever play HDCP content, then it doesn't matter in the least whether or not your panel supports it or not, because its not going to affect you in the slightest. Having HDCP support doesn't automatically encrypt not HDCP content.
I'm curious what monitors are currently on your short list of possible buys?
The only monitors at newegg that I can find that don't support HDCP are the lowest end consumer junk TN panels that only have 1 VGA input. And no digital inputs at all.
The year of ubuntu on the designer workstation?? *ubuntu 9.04 beta 4 64bit It's pretty pretty fast and stable.
Your going to look pretty silling sitting there with your no-name brand 17" VGA monitor with a cheap 6-bit TN panel trying to convince people you are a "professional graphics designer".
Full-blown apps are relatively easy to remove, but some of the "desktop environment" stuff - applets, the various managers (volumes, power), libraries - sit at the centre of a web of dependencies and aren't easy to get rid of. Even things that are only "Recommends:"-ed seem to pop back sometimes when I'm not looking :/
Having said that, disk is insanely cheap these days, so that even I, who's pretty obsessive about avoiding 'bloat', have learnt to live with leaving the packages around. Memory's pretty cheap too, and anyway actually stopping unnecessary components from running is a bit easier.
And, of course, no one distro / desktop environment "fits all." Xubuntu is lighter and more "loosely coupled", and there are other Ubuntu variants that are even more hardcore (I keep meaning to give #! a spin ..) That's really where free software trumps commercial: each subculture that feels the need can roll its own.
I don't see the average user uninstalling IE8 just because there's an option to do it.
It's an option that most people won't use, so Microsoft is giving in on something that really doesn't do them any harm.
The smart part is that now that there's an option to uninstall IE8, it's harder to complain about it since the fact that it's still in any given computer is not Microsoft's doing, but the user's lack of desire to uninstall it, so IE8 must be working well enough for the average user. At least that's what MS will say.
Could whoever is writing the Conficker++ 2.0 right now please include an auto-deactivate all important MS apps please? Thanks. I'm really looking forward to what that would do to economies and submarines.
I think you'd see the full force of Microsoft put to squashing the vulnerability all of the sudden.
Let's say though that they didn't.. let's say the bug is not fixable in a reasonable time frame (reasonable being according to the average consumer.... probably less than a week).
I predict the following would occur, in this order:
1) The year of Linux on the Desktop would finally be realized
2) Linux gurus would become Gods among men for a day
3) The following day, "Computer Support" jobs would replace dentists as the occupation with the highest suicide rate as the flood of ex-windows end-users start calling for tech support
What "garbage apps" did you want to uninstall?
Ubuntu has a pretty clean installation, there's not much in there - short of maybe a few games that don't take up much space - that any user won't want.
Care to name some? Or are you just trolling?
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
One man's garbage is another's treasure.
If you are in an office environment and you're at all BOFH inclined, then there are a lot of things that are not necessary, clean as their installation may well be. Instant messaging, bittorrent, games.
Malware developers?
Actually, it's a violation of the HDMI specification to not implement HDCP.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".