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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.
I was still on the fence about whether to stick to Windows 7 or upgrade to Windows 10. This just made my decision for me. Looks like I'll probably make the jump to Linux in a few years depending on how well they've got games running on Linux( since that is the only thing keeping me on Windows anyway).
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
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?
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....
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
My in-laws live in middle of nowhere Pennsylvania and had tried HughesNet for a few years but didn't like it. I told them to get one of the little wireless routers from Verizon, and they easily keep under their 2Gb limit.
Last month she's calling me wondering how in the world she could have gone over her limit, and how they are going to charge her $30 and this and that. After some investigation, turns out it was Win10 downloading.
Yeah, thats some shit right there.
//TODO: Insert catchy phrase
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 ?
> Looks like I'll probably make the jump to Linux in a few years
Those of us who have been Microsoft-free for decades will be here to help whenever you're ready. Only if you're a Windows expert, they'll be a little bit of a learning a learning curve. For example, if you edit the registry manually on a regular basis, there's no registry on Linux. If you DON'T delve into the internals of the OS, you may hardly notice the difference, other than that you don't have to worry about software license keys anymore.
My main tip to make transitioning simple:
Don't ask "how do I run [brand name of software] on Linux?"
Instead I ask, "How do I [accomplish task] on Linux?"
As an example, it's much easier to do basic and moderate photo editing in Gimp than it is to buy Photoshop and get it running on Linux.
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.
I had to travel recently, so I took a laptop with clean Windows 8.1 Pro install.
At my destination, I've purchased a SIM (they only had 1GB data packages) and put it into the 3G/wifi router I carry.
I powered the laptop, connected to Internet via said router, checked few things, then went away for few hours.
When I got back to apartment, my data package (and Internet connectivity) was killed because Microsoft idiots decided to start downloading Windows 10 even though I have explicitly closed/rejected all the 'offers'.
Those retards did not take into account the possibility that not everyone running Windows is on unlimited broadband data package. Great planning there.
At home I did a plain install of 8.1 on another computer, and same thing happened - even though I explicitly rejected everything related to Windows 10, idiots made it so download starts anyway. I had to 'hide' the Windows 10 in Windows Update in order to stop it from being downloaded.
She will be a perfect, unassailable test case in the airtight class action lawsuit Data Cap Victims v Microsoft Corporation.
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
2 of the 4 KBs are not be displayed :P so it is impossible to uninstall them...
Can anyone provide more info on this?
Is it true? The list of KBs I know to avoid are:
KB3022345 - Created a new Windows service called the Diagnostics Tracking service. (RETRACTED)
KB3068708 - Update to 3022345.
KB3075249 - Enhanced the User Account Control (UAC) feature to enable it to collect more information from the elevation prompts.
KB3080149 - Update to 3022345/3068708.
But it's true I tried to uninstall them and only saw 2 to uninstall and hide. I thought however that it was because some were updates/replacements of previous ones.
As I understand it you get a free licence locked to 1 machine. But the windows 7 licence I bought is for any machine (but I can only install/run one copy). So that would be a retrograde step.
SURELY NOT!!!!!
One time, years ago, I got a new laptop and deferred accepting the "security update" for over a month while I learned the details of my new laptop and new Win XP OS. When I did accept the security update I could no longer access the Internet from Linux. This was particularly strange since I was running Linux from a Knoppix Live CD, and I even confirmed that the CD had not changed (both by checking the md5 and by making another CD). What I eventually tracked down was that the "security update" had changed the EEPROM on my built-in NIC so that it wouldn't work properly under Linux any more (all modern NICs use EEPROM to store information including the MAC address). Windows bypassed what was done and it could still access the Internet.
As Windows is that only malware that successfully has been able to do damage to any of my computers that I couldn't undo, I no longer allow Windows to do the automatic updates. Some say that I'm foolish. This article indicates otherwise.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
I think at this point MS has finally made it where the risks of running Windows Update and getting files and features I don't want have outweighed the supposed benefits of keeping my system secure through Windows Update. No more updates, and Windows 7 is the last MS-OS I allow in the house.
Our housekeeper had a Win7 laptop which ran so-so. Win10 downloaded automatically and nagged for install every boot. She finally clicked OK. Laptop thrundled for an hour, rebooted, screen went black, never came back. Each attempt to boot turns the screen black. No recovery, no backup.
She got a Chromebook and couldn't be happier. Thank you Microsoft.
To Terminate, or not to Terminate, that's the question - SCSIROB
The data set is pretty much every Humble Bundle that contains games for Windows and Linux (which is most game bundles).
Let's have a look at one currently running bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/w...
Average purchase: $2.82
Average Windows: $2.71
Average Mac: $3.25
Average Linux:$3.89
So Linux users are willing to pay 40% more than Windows users on a pay what you want scheme.
I usually install "Optional" Windows updates as part of my preventive maintenance routine with my clients. I was taken off guard when I saw this suspicious looking folder. After a second of research I found it was the Windows 10 install files, which I never asked for (my clients always defer things like that to me).
Along with some other questionable optional Win7 updates as of late (like the one that tracks you akin to Win10), I'm wondering whether I need to research each individual update now before installing it. Fuck, Microsoft. Why do you have to make my job even more time consuming than it already is just keeping your damn OS running correctly?
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
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.