Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Make Windows Update Install Only Security Updates Automatically?
An anonymous reader writes: After the news earlier this month about Microsoft forcing the Windows 10 upgrade on people who don't want it, my sizeable extended family has been coming to me for a solution. They don't want to be guinea pigs this early in the Windows 10 release cycle, but it looks like Microsoft may not be giving them a choice. My reading of Woody Leonhard's advice is that the only way to ensure the upgrade doesn't happen is to disable Windows Update, but that seems extreme. I want my family to install security updates, but I don't relish the idea of explaining to them how to install just those and hide the less-desireable updates.
The ideal solution would be to have only security updates install automatically, but it looks like it's easier said than done. I've looked at third-party tools like Autopatcher and Portable Update, but a security-only option doesn't seem to be very standard. From what I've read, Microsoft doesn't even package security updates separately, sometimes mixing merely Important and Recommended updates in the downloaded CAB file. I wish I could get them off Windows, but it's not an option. They use Windows at work or school, and don't want to go through the process of learning another OS. Maybe the current situation with Windows 10 will convince them eventually, but they need something now. I would really like to come up with a solution before the next Patch Tuesday on October 13. Do any of the more knowledgeable Slashdotters out there have any advice?
The ideal solution would be to have only security updates install automatically, but it looks like it's easier said than done. I've looked at third-party tools like Autopatcher and Portable Update, but a security-only option doesn't seem to be very standard. From what I've read, Microsoft doesn't even package security updates separately, sometimes mixing merely Important and Recommended updates in the downloaded CAB file. I wish I could get them off Windows, but it's not an option. They use Windows at work or school, and don't want to go through the process of learning another OS. Maybe the current situation with Windows 10 will convince them eventually, but they need something now. I would really like to come up with a solution before the next Patch Tuesday on October 13. Do any of the more knowledgeable Slashdotters out there have any advice?
SCCM can push patches whenever the admin feels like it... maybe this would work for you? Although it would require setting up the server somewhere.
Buck Feta. You know what to do.
Unless you wish to become the IT department for your sizeable extended family, don't touch this. The moment you take over patch management is the moment that others (Microsoft, Geek Squad, MS Fixit, etc.) cease being able to fix minor problems when their PCs go goofy.
If you do want to become the IT department, look into Microsoft's Enterprise solutions. They continue to allow personalized patch management there.
The "conventional wisdom" of having automatic updates on is to keep the huge ecosystem of windows desktops and laptops at least reasonably up to date, especially as to security issues, and this has to some extent worked. However, this new policy of trying to cram windows 10 down everyone's throat is beginning to have the opposite effect. Many people I know, myself included, have disabled automatic updates and more will follow. I have been asked many times how to stop upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and about the only answer I can give is either to turn automatic updates off or switch to Linux. Since few people are willing to move to Linux this change by Microsoft is actually increasing the threat from people using windows platforms.
Now in Windows 10, with no indication of what a given update may contain or do it opens the door to just about anything on those machines. Somehow this makes me think of the recent unpleasantness that Volkswagen has unleashed upon itself. Just trust me to do the right thing. I am not a great admirer of Regan, either as an actor or politician, but one thing he said was on the mark. "Trust but verify."
Let us assume Windows is downloading Windows 10 automatically, even if you did not reserve it. Do you get Windows 10 installed by doing the typical "You need to restart your computer in order to get security updates"? If that is not what happens, then the only thing wrong is downloading 3.5GB worth of unwanted data. It is still wrong, though. I do not think people are installing Windows 10 without ever clicking on YES somewhere. I am sure it is the user's fault if they click. It is always the user's fault if they install unwanted/malware software that was bundled with other software by clicking a YES button.
So, do not spread wrong rumours, pretty please. I have not heard of anybody installing Windows 10 without his/her consent.
Of course, you don't have to install Linux. Maybe some people would be happier with Apple. You run into a lot of the same problems with them -- Apple looks out for Apple. I got tired of beating my head against my computer to make it work in the mid 2000s and ran Apple hardware for nearly a decade. You plug their shit in, it just works. It's tempting. But even more than Microsoft, their software thinks it knows how you should be working and it's difficult or impossible to do anything differently. You start banging your head against your computer again, and at least with Linux when you do that, you damn well can make the system do what you want it to. Apple's gaming scene when I was using them was only marginally better than Linux's -- you could make a couple of big MMOs and some decade-old games work with their systems.
You could also go with FreeBSD. I don't know a lot about them, but with the whole systemd debacle, a lot of people are moving in that direction now. I'd have to set it up and run it for a while before I could recommend it to relatives.
So that pretty much leaves me with Linux. If you're moving away from Microsoft because you don't like their agenda, you probably don't want a commercial distribution of Linux, either. Find one with an active community that has politics you like and go with them. Or just decide that maybe you can put up with Microsoft's bullshit after all. That's your choice, right there, and you should be able to talk intelligently with your relatives about it.
You don't have to stay there once you make that move, either. I've just about eliminated all the Apple stuff I had going on -- my old Core 2 Duo Macbook is running Linux and my destop dual boots windows and Linux. I'm still booting back to Windows for the games collection and because getting files off my Android phone is easier with Windows. I prefer Kdenlive in Linux for editing my GoPro videos, but I mostly just clip a bit off the front and back of the video and tweak the contrast and sharpening.
The point is that for all these things you always have that choice. Live with your current vendor's bullshit or find some vendor whose bullshit you can tolerate.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I don't know why this got modded down. It is a pretty good solution.
Many people would probably balk at the domain recommendation, but you don;t have to join a domain. You can point workgroup computers at WSUS as well. These computers get their updates solely from WSUS and you can pick and choose which updates to push.
But, there's probably other ways as well. I haven't looked into exactly how it works, but Microsoft is not pushing the Windows 10 offerings to Windows 7 Pro computers joined to a domain, even without WSUS.
What I'm seeing is that the corporate, domain joined, machines don't get the telemetry updates or the Windows 10 updates offered to them at all. So, there's probably a registry change that would cause Windows Update to skip you personal machine for Windows 10 roll out.
Stop buying their software? Windows 10 is free, nobody has to buy it.
Just because you didn't give them money up front, doesn't mean there aren't other costs associated with using the products. One has to ask how long before microsoft starts selling advertising services to customers that can't be blocked because its the OS that’s feeding you the ads? Only way out is to buy enterprise edition? Guess what, that costs $200 per seat, and unlike past generations of PCs, when you buy a PC now, you're getting the free version of windows, so now that $500 PC is actually going to cost you $700 to get what you used to get. You as the tech support guy need to warn your friends and family that this is what they have signed up for with windows 10. Beyond that warning, refuse to support it, and tell grandma that you would be happy to install Ubuntu or Debian, or some other such that really *is* free.
As long as you keep trying to do free tech support for microsoft, they're going to keep shitting on people like you. If the product doesn't work, why are you fixing it for microsoft? tell the people that if they have trouble they need to contact microsoft for tech support, and when microsoft refuses, that's when you offer one of the Linux variants.
I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
They already do this by offering totally meaningless descriptions. Reading descriptions does no good when they contain no actual information.
What do they think moving to Win 10 will be like?
A piece of cake?
In Steam's August Hardware and Software Survey,16% of Steam gamers were running 64 Bit Win 10, a bare 0.92% Linux. Steam Hardware and Software Survey: August 2015
Worldwide usage of Windows 10 in its first calendar month (August) was 4.9% compared to 1% for Windows 8 and 4.1% for Windows 7 after their first complete month.
Windows 10 first month worldwide usage well ahead of that recorded by Windows 8