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Microsoft Is Downloading Windows 10 Without Asking

New submitter christhedj writes with a story at The Inquirer, according to which: Microsoft, having learned nothing from Apple and the U2 album, have started downloading Windows 10 as part of Patch Tuesday for Windows 7 and 8 users. For people on a 32GB flash drive tablet, that's a big chunk of space taken up with something that they didn't ask for. Microsoft admits to doing this, but users are not happy. Way to look needy, Microsoft.

28 of 867 comments (clear)

  1. Arrogance? by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is way beyond arrogance, this is tantamount to installing malware on my computer. So now I have to go through all my windows machines checking and uninstalling "patches" for... ever?

    1. Re:Arrogance? by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Good luck figuring out which ones are safe to install.

      Microsoft has promoted them to the point where they show as "Important" and claim to be for the stability of the OS. Unless you literally check every patch on the web to figure out if it isn't related to Windows 10 it's almost impossible.

      They're going to shove this turd up people's asses no matter what it takes.

      Apparently this is how Microsoft envisions the future ... sending a big "fuck you" to their customers and telling them they don't have a choice in how Microsoft runs things, and are re-defining who actually owns the machine.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:Arrogance? by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What about the people with full hard drives? I don't want to get warning messages about HD space, just because MS DLd a big OS on my old and rather full HD without my permission.

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
  2. Waiting for it to update without prompting by mark-t · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If this is running as part of regular Windows Update, I'm curious to know whether or not this is going to just start installing the update to windows 10 without asking the user at some point.

    That will be *VERY* interesting....

    1. Re:Waiting for it to update without prompting by denis-The-menace · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They've installed stealth updates before.
      They are arrogant enough.
      Why not?

      --
      Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
    2. Re:Waiting for it to update without prompting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or maybe Microsoft is going to prompt to update, but they want the update to be instantaneous. They hope that users will click "yes" by mistake, and if the update is prefetched there's no opportunity for users to click "cancel" on the progress bar.

    3. Re:Waiting for it to update without prompting by houghi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why not? Because they will be punished. Oh, wait. They won't. Fined? Nope. Loosing more customers than they gain? Nope.

      In fact what would be the reason from their point of view for NOT doing it compared to doing it. They gain more by doing it and so they do it. Simple.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  3. Metered connections ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What about when you are on a metered connection (such as mobile broadband) ?

    This could cost you a fortune. Any chance Microsoft could be held liable for their customers communication costs ?

  4. Re:That was easy by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and another empty threat. you'll be on windows 10 in a few years, you'll see.

    Probably not. Like I said, I'm really only still on Windows because of games, and with me essentially "growing up" (married, work 8-4 M-F and 1 weekend a month, planning to have kids next year) chances are in a few years I will hardly be playing games anymore anyway. At that point there is nothing left tying me to Windows.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  5. Re:That was easy by Nidi62 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Valve is working on making "consoles" that are setup in a standard way, but the vast majority of PC gamers don't want a console in any form. Is it possible, sure, but it's not likely.

    Since most of my games are through Steam anyway, I am hoping that increased adoption of a Valve console would lead to something of a PC version. I have a work provided laptop for work, so my desktop is for pure entertainment anyway. And the newest game I've bought is ESO anyway. Hell, I only just bought Skyrim for PC earlier this year. All of my purchases at this point are Humble Bundles or Steam sales, most of which are usually a few years old. So I don't need to be able to play AAA titles on release day.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  6. Assholes .. by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm so damned glad I've not allowed automatic updates. I'm seriously contemplating never applying a damned update to my Windows 8.1 desktop ever again.

    Microsoft seems to have simply decided that the user has no choice in the matter, and that Microsoft is going to manage your computer for you.

    Throw in all of the telemetry and other shitware they've been putting into the OS and Windows is rapidly becoming very hostile to the people who actually own the computers.

    They're really acting like a bunch of assholes in how they're handling this damned update, and making it harder and harder to tell what is a "real" update and what is just shit they've put in for their own purposes.

    What part of "this is my Windows 8.1 machine, I am not interested in Windows 10, fuck off and go away" is so hard to understand? Don't keep sneaking it in via stealthy means ... because if you have to do this shit behind people's backs, you should take that as a sign nobody wants it.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  7. 1-800-sue-em by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 5, Insightful

    She will be a perfect, unassailable test case in the airtight class action lawsuit Data Cap Victims v Microsoft Corporation.

  8. We need to publicly call out Microsoft by acoustix · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think the most effective way to approach this is to take to social media and call out Microsoft. What gives them the right to push an unwanted upgrade to my computer without my consent? You're planning to upgrade my computer, without any knowledge of how it will affect my software and hardware that has specific requirements.

    Can you imagine what will happen to small business running specialty software and hardware that isn't support on Windows 10 yet? What about the data plans of it's customers? We're talking about potentially millions of dollars that consumers will be charged in data overages.

    I have already taken to Twitter to start my bitching. And I don't tweet very often. We need to make this painful for Microsoft.

    --
    "A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
  9. Re:Data Plan Blew Up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Same thing happened to me. I don't game or stream and am just a poor college dude, so I just tether my laptop to my phone for internet. I blew over my cap because of this. If I had known about it or had the option to delay, I would have gone to a wifi hotspot for the update. Microsoft really must have their head so far up their collective asses to not consider there might be any reason to give users a choice on if and when they download Windows 10. It just goes to show how Microsoft is out of touch with how people are actually using computers... "gee I have high speed internet at home so everyone else must have it too!".

  10. Re:Data Plan Blew Up by halivar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In this particular case, the villain is the greedy asshole ISP with the arbitrary data cap.

  11. Re:That was easy by Penguinisto · · Score: 2, Insightful

    and another empty threat. you'll be on windows 10 in a few years, you'll see.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAaaaa!

    (...typed on my MacBook Pro at work while waiting for a build to complete. My MacBook Pro at home says you're full of it too, as well as my Linux home machinery...)

    In all honesty, transitioning away form Windows was once a long, drawn-out process. I kept a Windows box around for years because of gaming, and CG applications (3DS Max specifically) that only worked on Windows. However, bit-by-bit, I was able to move my CG tools and gaming habits over to either Linux or OSX (or in the case of CG, I found better that worked on OSX, so I re-worked how I did things to adapt) - with each change, the Windows box became less and less used. It went from a dedicated Windows box, to a dual-boot rig, and eventually, I dumped the Windows partition entirely.

    Fast forward to today, where the one and only Windows machine in my possession is an Windows 7 VM sitting on my MacBook. I might start it up once every 8 months or so to fire up an old CG application or tool, but usually I only do it to convert a really old/archived CG file into something I can use in OSX.

    In my wife's case, the transition was almost instant: Two years ago, she took one look at Windows 8, and went with a new iPad instead. Eventually she discovered that sometimes she needed a laptop, but I have one loaded with Linux Mint for her that she uses just fine, and has actually come to prefer using it over Windows.

    TL;DR - sometimes it's drop-easy to convert (especially for ordinary users who don't do much with a computer), sometimes it takes time (for us crazy people who do a lot of stuff on one.)

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  12. Re:That was easy by tepples · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At that point there is nothing left tying me to Windows.

    Other than Linux failing to suspend and resume correctly on a laptop.

  13. Re:That was easy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    That does happen on some laptops, not on others. Not that much worse than the situation on Windows, really.

  14. Re:That was easy by circletimessquare · · Score: 2, Insightful

    this entire thread sounds like a repost from 1998. not much has changed on this topic in 15-20 years

    personally, i think google *may* find some way to kill off windows in 5-10 years

    i'm not talking about chromebooks, i'm talking about how android has destroyed windows in the phone market. google is leveraging and will continue to leverage phone dependence to make desktops and tablets something you want the same interaction with, content sharing with, seamless switching, etc.

    i'm not saying exactly what that compelling need is, but obviously microsoft can't leverage the desktop to compel people to put windows on their phone. so google *might* be able to do the opposite with some must-have need or want

    ps: i'm purposefully ignoring apple. i never owned an apple product in my life. too pricey. we're talking about the masses here, not the middle class of rich countries and the upper middle class of everywhere else. apple is just a luxury brand walled garden, an outlier

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  15. Re:That was easy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    At least I fucking hate restarting applications and getting them to the point I want.

  16. Re:Data Plan Blew Up by tepples · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A lot of these ISPs don't offer unlimited, and these users had no advance notice that unlimited would be preferable with their present usage pattern.

  17. Re:Bloating chicken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Stop using monospace to post you fucking idiot.

  18. Re:That was easy by Idarubicin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When you have an SSD that boots Linux in less than 20 seconds, who the hell *cares* if it doesn't hibernate correctly.

    Presumably people working on multiple documents and/or in multiple applications who don't want to have to restart those applications, reopen their files, and rearrange their windows every time they go from home to office. (Or office to train. Or living room to desk. Or whatever.)

    --
    ~Idarubicin
  19. Re:That was easy by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    yeah, 'saving state' is such an old and outdated concept. I mean, why would we want to checkpoint the status of lots of open files, open browser windows, edits that are not ready to be commited or saved but you don't want to close the file, either. even the cursor position is important to be saved; its all part of 'state'.

    but go ahead an argue that saving your status is worthless. in fact, maybe you like to just be forced to logoff and reboot every few hours? hmmm? sound good to you?

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  20. Re:That was easy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What about the time spent relaunching all programs, windows, etc back to where before? Sometimes you want to turn it off without interrupting your workspace.

  21. Microsoft Has to do this.. by Striikerr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Microsoft has to do this in order to boost figures which they spread around via marketing. Look how many times Windows 10 has been downloaded by users! Have a look at THIS headline as proof..
    The Appeal of Free: 75 Million Users Download Windows 10 in First Month

    Obviously the intent here is to inflate their numbers and make the deployment look better than it really is. While I have no doubt that many are taking advantage of the free upgrade option (which apparently expires in a year or so), not all who download are going to install (shoveling the upgrade onto systems) or stick with it.

  22. Re:We'll be here to help by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Once you have switched to Linux, you won't "buy more music on iTunes" anymore. Use Amazon.

    And that, right there, shows the backwards thinking of Linux users...

    Change your life to cater to the OS, rather than the OS cater to your life.

    Perhaps the user doesn't want to leave iTunes, perhaps they are happy with their iPhone/iPad/iPod.

  23. Re:That was easy by cyberchondriac · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Weelll, you say that now. I stopped playing games for years, and thought I was done with them. Then my son grew older, and discovered Skyrim. So then, I discovered Skyrim. The next thing I know I'm replacing the graphics card and the power supply to support it in my computer. Since then I've bought Doom3 and Rage, older era stuff my card can support (I bought the latest GPU my mobo could support). I'm trying to quit again, it's too much unproductive (but fun!) time spent.

    --

    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.