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Microsoft Will Resume Pushing Windows 10 To Machines With Win7, 8.1 (computerworld.com)
LichtSpektren writes: After previously apologizing on October 16th for forcing Windows 10 on some users of Windows 7 and 8.1 via the Windows Update mechanism, Microsoft disabled the default update option for Windows 10, so that users eligible for the new OS would have to opt in manually. Gregg Keizer at ComputerWorld reports today that Microsoft will soon switch the default option back to "on" again, possibly as early as tomorrow's "Patch Tuesday" update. Users who do not want Windows 10 are strongly advised to turn off automatic updating to avoid accidentally installing the OS.
But I'm glad Microsoft is shedding legacy so aggressively. There's no way the OS will install itself automatically. It'll merely be downloaded to your machine (or machines). Install it if you want to, or don't, you still have choice.
I was contemplating upgrading recently. And I don't see any reason NOT to. System requirements are the same as 7 and 8.1.
Any reason I should stop MS from upgrading me?
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
So is Microsoft watching everything I type, listening in on everything, and recording every web site even if on Chrome or Chrome incognito?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Add this to your registry and the Windows 10 update will go away...
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx]
"DisableGwx"=dword:00000001
Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
They are hocking their latest fair onto machines that are better off with the older operating system. Windows 10 doesn't offer any more functionality than windows 7 or 8.1. I don't need some crappy talking clippy to search for things for me. I don't need it, period.
"Accidentally installing the OS." Now there's a computer problem that nobody would've predicted!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
... when you click-through the sixteen page license agreement presented to you in 3 pt font in dark grey text on light grey background, some three years ago when you installed Win7. Right there on page fourteen, paragraph 4, sub paragraph 2, it said you agreed that the licensee (that's you) permits unscheduled, unannounced, update to the computer by the vendor, at vendor's sole discretion, with no recourse.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Sorry, you're mistaken. Read the comments on Ars Technica for the previous article: once the Windows 10 update was accidentally downloaded, it couldn't be stopped, only rescheduled. Some users had to go through the full update and then do the full regression back to Windows 7.
... how much of that is enforceable and will hold up in court?
The more appropriate question would be: how much money is available to pay for the required legal professionals' services to uphold it (or successfully contest it). Which is normally more than the average middle-class citizen can muster, especially compared to Microsoft's available funds.
The unfortunate reality is that the EULA by default stands until questioned, a court will not do that by its own volition and for free. Someone has to pay for that.
My coworker left automatic updates on her computer (Windows 7 Professional). She left for the weekend Friday. Came back Monday and Windows 10 was installed.
I have also read some comments on Ars Technica's article that some users could not find any way to interrupt the installation, only hard reboot, or wait for the full installation to finish and then regress back to 7.
Yep. That's where I was. I simply let it go and then tested my apps. Everything seems to still work but there wasn't a clean way to prevent the upgrade. I'm still checking some of the third tier apps I use (don't run very often but want to check) and can just reinstall Windows 7 if I find something horribly bad (yes, I have regular backups as well).
[John]
Shit better not happen!
And also, my bandwidth not yours. Which is not uncapped or particularly cheap where I am at.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
Microsoft now has Windows 7 users shutting off auto updates to stop this. They are getting the unintended consequences that any rational person should have seen coming a mile away. This is not going to go well for MS, and it would not surprise me if it ended up in court. They are basically turning the most used OS on the planet into an advertising platform with an app store built in. They were making a ton of money on the paid-for versions like 7, so I don't know why they let the bean counters talk them into switching revenue streams. If bundling IE got them in trouble with courts, there has to be a class action lawsuit in here somewhere, regardless of what is in the EULA.
A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.
By the time a case makes it to court, the damage is done. Your computer is "upgraded", Windows telemetry knows everything that is on your machine, and all your secrets are public. Not to mention, that half of your software no longer works, because of compatibility issues.
It gets harder and harder for me to understand why so many people stay on Microsoft operating systems.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Grishnakh asked: "If the user happily bends over and asks to be screwed, over and over, why shouldn't a business do so?"
Because it is wrong?
Because it is unethical?
Because it is a poor business decision?
etc.
etc.
Would any of those be good reason not to screw the customer?
... and the binding arbitration clause that's now present in millions of EULA?
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Just put your preferred distro on a live USB and test it. Alternatively, put your Windows 7 partition in a virtual machine, disconnect it from the Internet, and use it solely for your necessary software and Linux for everything else.
You're mistaken. My coworker came back from the weekend (this was in September I think) and found her Windows 7 Pro machine to have Windows 10 on it.
NOW can we put the "Bill as Borg" icon back for Microsoft, Dice?
I actually have an idea about this. This is purely opinion, but I think it's all about Microsoft's App store.
Apple is making buckets of money from their App store. Microsoft sees this, concludes it is unacceptable, and wants to get that money for itself, or at least as much of it as possible.
Now, Windows 8 and 8.1 had the App store, but 8 - while perhaps not a marketing disaster like Vista - still doesn't sit well with people. Windows 7 is well-liked, but there's no App store. Therefore: Upgrade everyone to Windows 10 for free, and wait for money to start rolling in via app purchases, in-menu advertisements, and other benefits. Maybe they can even sell telemetry data to marketing firms, depending on how much they wash it and how close they want to toe a legal line about turning over such information to third parties.
I've yet to hear any better explanation.
Right, somebody broke into our locked office building just to maliciously update our OSes? It happened on her computer because her updates were set to "Install updated automatically (recommended)". Perhaps your settings are different. But lots of users have reported Windows 10 installing without any user interaction whatsoever.
Changing the EULA after the fact for something material like this should make the EULA null and void in its entirety.
But much like Sony, this is enough reason for me to never use MS products again, were I still using any.
Captcha: takers
speaks for itself
And the most successful Trojan horse award goes out to Micro$oft Windows.
No, you can't. Windows bypasses its hosts file when contacting Microsoft domains hardcoded into the OS. You have to block the domains from the router (or maybe a third-party firewall would do the trick).
Because it is wrong?
According to you. If you don't like it, don't buy from that business. If you do buy from that business, you're just an enabler.
Because it is unethical?
According to you. And so what? Why does this matter?
Because it is a poor business decision?
Wrong. It's a good business decision. Do you see Microsoft's profits disappearing? I don't. People keep buying from them. So their strategy seems to be working, therefore it's a good thing for them to do.
If your auto dealer installed a camera in your car to snoop on you, an when you complain they say "we updated the EULA", are you going to just accept it?
It is not acceptable to do that in other industries. Why give Microsoft a pass?
The same thing everybody makes money from these days: ads, analytics, access to your data, and the attempt to further lock you into their platform.
Microsoft have decided that your computer is now their computer, and that they will decide what happens to it.
Windows 10 is the point at which Microsoft decides to openly state they don't give a crap what their "customers" want.
Welcome to the future, where corporate interests means they have more control over the products you buy than you do.
I figure Microsoft is going to create Linux and Mac users as everyone gets pissed off and leaves.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
"Your" experience is second hand, and appears to be someone playing a practical joke upon a co-worker. The "reports of several people" seems dubious too.
I have my own direct experience of how the install works, I've done it twice. Given actual, first hand, experience of three machines - two installed, one not - given the fact millions of people would be protesting if there had ever been a period whereby Windows 10 "installed itself" without bringing up a single cancellable dialog, and given the severe legal situation Microsoft would be in if it ever tried to pull this stunt, I would seriously advice you to locate the practical joker in your office.
Oh, like the severe legal situation Microsoft would be in if they downloaded 12 GB (or however much it is) without asking the user? Or sending their personal information to 100+ domains without the ability to turn it off? Yeah, they admitted they were doing this and that too.
But keep telling yourself that there is a ghost that is floating to peoples' computers and maliciously installing operating systems on them. Microsoft already apologized two months ago for doing what you're denying is occurring.
One very important thing for me is a Ceton CableCard Tuner I have to record shows with Media Center.. Media Center was originally in Windows 10 Preview then they intentionally removed it.. and then they disabled Netflix from working in older versions of MediaCenter... Microsoft is working with comcast to restrict home users ability to record TV Content over Cable and Antenna.. Comcast and Cox have already started converting their Set Top Boxes to IP based streaming boxes which will not allow you to locally record tv content... The FCC and many cases along the way say we have the right to record TV Content for our own use and Archive but now with Microsoft doing away with DVD support and Media Center.. we no longer have that ability.. Its going to be like trying to capture a Hulu.com TV show.. it will be close to impossible if not impossible within 5 years.. this is blatant collusion and criminal activity to require people who pay for content either on Cable or Antenna by watching commercials to stream any rerun or later viewing of a show from a service like netflix hulu or comcasts own streaming service instead of letting the User record content as has been legal since the VCR.. Today it is now illegal to transfer content from DVDs to your computer in England and other European countries.. they want us to pay them for every viewing of every show even if its a 10 year old rerun of friends.. and if you haven't noticed there are no new good shows being produced... Comcast is not only a distributor of content.. they own TV Networks and Movie Studios and Microsoft has had a relationship with them since Gates invested a billion dollars in them back in the 1990's .... Its corrupt... most likely criminal.. and definitely evil
Compared to Windows 10, that's one smooth, silky, well lubed little french tickler. Who knows, you might even enjoy it!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Seriously, it is kind of a cool anecdote, because it shows how a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. You basically didn't stop to think: Hey, is this fair? Is this a fair comparison?. Of course, it isn't. Not at all. Allow me to elaborate.
A professional installed and configured a customized version of Windows on your system (Maybe you didn't know that an engineering team configured a custom version of Windows with all the right drivers, etc?.) Then an amateur tried to installed and configure Linux, and not surprisingly was unsuccessful (thus the WiFi and video "problems", and inability to run your Windows applications with WINE/Codeweaver Crossover.) It boggles the mind that you think that could pass as a fair comparison. True, there are some Windows applications that won't work with Crossover, but it is highly unlikely you use those, or you never would have made the switch (e.g. You' would already know Photoshop and AutoCAD aren't available for Linux.)
My assumption is that you are a troll (who else would claim that 99% of your software won't work if you use Linux?), but maybe I'm wrong, and even if I'm not at least other people can learn a little something (like the existence of Crossover) as a consequence of your post now, whereas there was absolutely nothing to learn from yours directly, and a significant danger someone would get a tingle in their confirmation bias gland.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
If your auto dealer installed a camera in your car to snoop on you, an when you complain they say "we updated the EULA", are you going to just accept it?
It is not acceptable to do that in other industries. Why give Microsoft a pass?
GM customers seemed happy to keep doing business with GM after they did just that (well, audio, not video) for OnStar - there were several incidents, from police snooping to bored operators.
I'm OK with laws to enforce privacy, but it's a democracy and if most people don't care, well, we get the government we deserve. In the meantime, consumers also have a duty to stop doing business with assholes. Legal or not, when a company makes an asshole move like this, and you decide to keep doing business with them, well, decisions have consequences.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I don't see MS doing this for the sake of users, I see them doing it because they think this will provide greater revenue streams. There is not other explanation for them pushing a change to 10 so aggressively. They need as many eyes on the app store as possible, or it isn't going to pan out.
Your instincts from a year ago were more on target.
A brain is a terrible thing to waste... Mind? That's debatable.
While I am Sold to the Win10 new ways* , I understand why some other people (minority or not, but VERY vocal) are opposed to it. So it is NOT NICE from Microsoft to push so hard for Win10.
Had they had a gentler touch from the beginning, we wouldn't see all this pushback, and all this cottage industry of tips and tricks and apps to disable the upgrade...
You harvest the tempests you sowed...
*full disclosure, my main machines are macs, some legacy win laptops and all my bootcamp partitions are going to Win10*
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
It's the old "how to disable cookies in Firefox (was it, I think?)" trick again.
MS tries to create a folder called C:\$windows.~BT to download its installer files into. Create a file by that name and, well, no way to create a folder by that name or dump the files somewhere. Installer croaks, aborts download, bullet dodged.
Of course MS will eventually catch on and close that loophole, but it should be good to let us survive another patch day.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Because it is wrong?
According to you. If you don't like it, don't buy from that business. If you do buy from that business, you're just an enabler.
Because it is unethical?
According to you. And so what? Why does this matter?
Because it is a poor business decision?
Wrong. It's a good business decision. Do you see Microsoft's profits disappearing? I don't. People keep buying from them. So their strategy seems to be working, therefore it's a good thing for them to do.
According to everyone. It's wrong and unethical if you override someone else's will to do yours on something you don't own. The customer bought the computer and the OS. Overriding their will with their computer isn't an opinion, it's just flat-out wrong.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Button said, "Download now and install later". What they meant was "Download now and install when it's done downloading".
Microsoft now has Windows 7 users shutting off auto updates to stop this.
I've had to shut off auto-updates for a very long time. My graduate students are VERY unhappy when they start a week-long model run and a few days later the computer has rebooted to install a needless update.
Windows 10, as I understand it, makes this problem worse.
I don't know what is in the mind of the Microsoft people. They finally get an OS that is stable enough it can run for a week without needing to be rebooted (or rebooting on its own) and they decide you have to reboot anyway.
I don't know what is in the mind of the Microsoft people.
It will sell more copies of/upgrades to Windows Pro than probably anything else will. Since that's the only version where you can turn off automatic updates. I don't know why CPU usage / system load isn't taken into account when scheduling even an automatic reboot.
Uh, I think you skimmed my original post; I'm DONE with Microsoft products, I don't want any more of them and their nonsense, treating my computer like they own it and not me, and spying on everything I do, forcing updates down my throat, etc. Additionally I'm not spending a dime on an old P4 laptop, it'll work fine the way it is or it won't work at all, but I think it'll be fine; no 'upgrading' anything, it has 2GB of RAM, if some average distro of Linux won't run in that then there's something seriously wrong with Linux. This 'Ubuntu' looks as good as anything else as a starting point. Also, it's a laptop, there are no 'upgrades' for anything anyway, it is what it is.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Tried it, hated it, went back to 7 and MS is still nagging me to downgrade to windows 10 (10 is no upgrade). What's with TFS's "will resume"? They never stopped. I'd go Linux-only except all the magazines demand a Word file, and Oo and Lo can't save one properly.
Free Martian Whores!
Microsoft tried to "harmonize" their smartphones with their desktops to have a consistent user interface. If Apple and Android smartphones have an "app store" where pre-tested applications are on sale, then so must Microsoft. Then Microsoft introduced that "live tiles" interface for their smartphones to match the App pages on smartphones. Therefore, the desktop must have one too. It can't be a separate application because users may not use it. So it must be bolted onto the desktop somewhere. The only practical place is in the start pullup menu.
Since smartphones auto-update applications, then so must the desktop. One problem with desktop systems are the large botnets, malware, viruses with growth assisted by users who don't update regularly. So Microsoft decides the only solution is to forced every system to get "updates" at night. For hipsters, it's cool to suddenly discover "new features" on their phones in the morning. For anyone else who had project work running it is infuriating to suddenly find their work gone and the machine stuck in a update.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
I do too. One title is called "Windows Media Center" and it's the only roll-your-own-DVR that works with Time Warner due to Time Warner's abuse of the CopyOnce CCI flag.
Guess I'll never run Windows Update on that box ever again.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Microsoft now has Windows 7 users shutting off auto updates to stop this.
I've had to shut off auto-updates for a very long time. My graduate students are VERY unhappy when they start a week-long model run and a few days later the computer has rebooted to install a needless update.
Windows 10, as I understand it, makes this problem worse.
I don't know what is in the mind of the Microsoft people. They finally get an OS that is stable enough it can run for a week without needing to be rebooted (or rebooting on its own) and they decide you have to reboot anyway.
You should learn how to make a local policy which you can push to all machines. No business or school should be blindly using the automatic update schedule from Microsoft. Create your own so you don't have unnecessary loss of productivity and downtime. You can't blame Microsoft for this. They only want computers more secure.
None [of my Win 7 PCs] have forced it on to me. I just have to click decline every week or so
So the default is the upgrade and you must decline repeatedly to avoid it? And you find that perfectly acceptable ? It is a pity that in being modded down as Troll (as you will be) you will slide down out of sight of many readers. It is a pity because to see an attitude like yours is itself an education in the strangeness of human nature. Unless of course you are trying to be funny.
You can also download a blocker from Microsoft.
This trend of trying to converge computers and mobile devices was stupid when it started, and still is. It's spread to website developers, where you have clowns suggest having a single site for both computers and mobile devices, rather than have different sites based on the device (like m.foo.com) That's the problem when you try to improve what's already optimal, if not perfect.
In Apple's case, making OS X like iOS was totally needless - not only b'cos of the differences b/w Macbook Airs vs iPads, but also due to the fact that OS X is an OS on x64 (and PowerPC before that) and iOS is an OS on Apple's ARM compatible CPUs. Only technical reason I can think of to converge them is if Apple decided to make their laptops and desktops based on the A9s rather than Intel's core processors. Since they're not doing it, what was the point?
In Microsoft's case, it was even more inexplicable. They had Windows 7, which was perfect. The right thing to have done would have been to make Windows 8 (w/o the desktop) for just the tablets and phones, and put the Windows 8 kernel under Windows 7. Ideally, brand them differently, like Apple did, or do something like KDE did. But even if not doing that, they should have just left Windows 7 as the interface for laptops, changing only the kernel beneath but leaving the userland unchanged. And maybe changing the model for application development.
Something like the current Windows 10 interface would have been ideal for hybrids, but the original 7 and 8 could have stayed on their respective platforms
I don't give a shit about what you or even some sell-out judge says. This is WRONG (morally and factually) and anyone who believes it should go fuck himself!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
If you are wanting to run Windows 7 from a VM? Get a copy of "Windows 7 Tiny", it runs all the software Windows 7 runs while taking less than a GB installed and uses less than 150Mb running the desktop, great for a VM. Its also great for those that need Windows but have older or weaker hardware, just for shits and giggles I tried it on a Sempron 1.8Ghz from 2003 and it ran faster than Puppy Linux, felt like it was on an SSD instead of an 80GB HDD it ran so fast.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
The customer does NOT own the OS. This has been made clear by licensing agreements
They own the right to use it. To use the thing that they licensed, not something else.
Suppose I give you a licence to shoot rabbits on my land, with no time limit. I cannot one day say that I am changing the licence from shooting rabbits on my land to shooting rats in my cellar, because the rabbit stuff was "only a licence".
What you are claiming sounds like US law, which I understand is in the hands of corporates like Microsoft. None of this twaddle would stand up in a UK court of law.
I have 5 windows 7 machines, and of those one of them (a laptop) continues trying to force me to update to windows 10 to the point that it's already reserved several gb of the (very limited) ssd for the download. It's especially annoying because it'll attempt to resume the download at random times, and since it's a laptop it's not always on the most stable of internet connections.
Two of my other machines have attempted to download it, but I actually use those enough that I spent the time scrubbing out all traces of the windows 10 advertising updates and blocking them as best I could. So far those machines haven't been bothered, but they're also a few months behind in normal updates (it's set to manual currently) so I can't say for sure how affected they are.
MS tried to stick to a model (buy/own a product) that was antiquated by Google's model (ad supported). Google instead offers everything at no charge while making money off the ads they push in your face. Users have embraced this model (even if most claim they hate it). For that reason MS is changing it's offering by monetizing through ads + a cut of app sales. Some will argue that MS is late to the game but I believe they resisted the change because they though people would go back to owning software.
MS is in the process of killing themselves because they are unable to understand Google is a search engine and Windows is an operating system.
So at the end of the day these changes are the result of what users want (not us the techies).
Wrong, nobody wants it.
I sense a bias towards Microsoft. This is clearly unacceptable behavior for any reasonably ethical company, yet you defend these actions.
You can't blame Microsoft for this. They only want computers more secure.
That's all they want? You really think that?
I call bullshit.
licet differant, aequabitur
My smartphone most certainly does not auto-update anything.
I've used numerous computers for years and I've never shit down one yet. There's a small room not far from me that is meant for that kind of activity. I shudder to think what the inside of a computer would look like, much less smell like, after you've shit down it multiple times.
Just joking!!
MS is in the process of killing themselves because they are unable to understand Google is a search engine and Windows is an operating system.
This is the perfect one-sentence expression of everything that's been wrong with Microsoft's Windows strategy in the last five years (at least).
MS is in the process of killing themselves because they are unable to understand Google is a search engine and Windows is an operating system.
You opinion isn't fact. Their revenues tell a different story. They brought in 6 billions more in 2015 than in 2014. Stop grabbing fictional facts from your butt hole.