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Windows 10 Upgrade Reportedly Starting Automatically On Windows 7 PCs (softpedia.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Many users have confirmed in the comment section of a popular reddit post that "Windows 7 computers are being reported as automatically starting the Windows 10 upgrade without permission." It's no secret that Microsoft wants users to upgrade to their new OS. Earlier in the year, Windows 10 was set as a 'recommended update' so when you install new security or bug patches, the new OS is selected by default as well. Terry Myerson, head of the OS group at Microsoft, warned users about the possibility of the OS automatically installing. "Depending upon your Windows Update settings, this may cause the upgrade process to automatically initiate on your device. Before the upgrade changes the OS of your device, you will be clearly prompted to choose whether or not to continue," he said. Whether or not the recent outcry is caused from users forgetting to deselect the Windows 10 upgrade in the update list or Microsoft updating Windows 7 PCs without users' permission, the good news is that you have 30 days to downgrade to the previous version of the OS.
Will someone please sue these fuckers!
Please?
Is that a rollback to Windows 7, or install (7) on top of install (10) on top of install (7)? That's still a lot of coffee. Making sure all your apps and settings are preserved, and hunting down the proper settings to prevent it from happening again... for now.
Twinstiq, game news
The windows Downgrade is horribly broken. More often than not, it will leav your Windows 7 in a smoking ruin.
Showed up for work last Monday and saw one box had switched over even after telling the nag screens NO. I had to do the uninstall because we have software that does not work properly under 10. I can't recommend GWX Control Panel enough. It removes all signs of 10 and even the 4Gb of files it downloads without telling you.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
But...the vast majority of users think it is fine. They don't care about this automated update business because, for most of them, it just works.
That's why Microsoft can get away with so much evil. It doesn't matter how much the technical community hates them, they get away with it, because the technical community is such a small percentage of their user base (and getting smaller by the day as people continue to exit the industry (at least in America) due to all the outsourcing).
Complain until you are blue in the face. Hell, switch to Linux if you are devoted enough to put up with all the hassle that Linux brings. It will make no difference. Microsoft does not care about you because you are too tiny a percentage of Microsoft's income.
How is this even remotely legal?
I'm running the GWX control panel so hopefully that will prevent this.
I'm running Win10 on my secondary laptop and while it's nice, it doesn't add any features I find important, and I really don't like my OS becoming an advertising program. It nags me to buy the latest version of Office (which I don't need or want). Lord knows what else MS has in store in the future.
I'm thinking that Linux desktop or a Mac are in my future once Win7 support runs out in a few years. I'm not going to be coerced into an ad program by Microsoft.
An error in the title.
Has anyone running GWX Control Panel seen this automatic WIndows 10 installation stopped/prevented?
I deny that I have not avoided attaining the opposite of that which I do not want.
you be sure to upgrade your machine back to Win 7/8 within that 30 day limit. Win10 is flakey, and getting flakier. Not talking about metro, the telemetry, the midnight reboots when your laptop is closed. I'm talking just weird little things that happen randomly, like you hit the back button in your browser and the browser minimizes to the task bar, or click 'Reply' in email and the window goes full screen. Never repeatable, never consistent, took me a couple weeks to decide that no, I wasn't hitting the wrong thing by mistake.
Seems to get a little worse with every "update" they install.
What is your environment?
Which Windows version did you start with 7/8 Home/Pro...?
Was the computer a domain member?
Do you use WSUS?
Was Automatic Updates defaulted or had you enabled recommended and/or optional updates.
Based on your recommendation of GWX Control Panel, I'm going to guess that this was Windows 7 home/pro not a domain member with full automatic updates.
or rather, have fun reinstalling. Your system is going to be broken.
My grandma accidentally updated to Windows 10 from 7 because of their shifty practises. My dad called me to say that everything on my grandmas computer "was different" and no one had changed everything.
She has mild alzheimer's and forgets short-term so we can have the same conversation 3-4 times in an hour (which gives you lots of time to prepare an answer), so she forgot she had clicked okay when Windows Update had asked to upgrade. I'm glad I'd gone around when I had because there was only a week left before the change was irreversible.Thanks for the timebomb, douchebags
I would have left it. She does nothing on the computer besides Facebook and Solitaire but the performance was awful. All these new features and crap were beyond her realm. I downgraded her and found a tool that hides/deletes all the Windows 10 update crap so it wouldn't happen again.
She got hit by ransomware last week despite only using Facebook. I reckon it was one of those inescapable ads that warn you you're infected then proceed to catch you in a "Ok/Cancel" loop where Cancel just opens a new prompt.
She has nothing on that computer so I just nuked the drive and stuck Linux Mint on there and with some themes and such she can't tell the difference.
Year of the Linux Desktop amiright?
Either Incompetent or Malicious. Or Both.
Whichever applies, you should uninstall this Windows-thing crap immediately.
I wonder what happens if you don't accept the end-user license agreement. Surely it must ask for acceptance before it does anything.
-SR
I've got Windows Update set to download, but notify me before installing. This has been fine for years, today the Action Center ("resolve PC issues") sees this as a "problem" that it wants to resolve by switching updates to Automatic. I don't think so, Bob.
do this: search your registry for GWX and GWXTriggers. and erase all entries which contain them. Done. Both telemetry and upgrades are ran by taskscheduler based on different triggered events. Task managers keeps the list of the tasks to run and the triggers which schedule them in the registry. On the plus side, you'll probably see a speed up in harddrive access, too. Because the telemetry eats quite a bit of the IO.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Had a client that I rolled back to 7. The next day it tried to go to 10 again. I then used GWX control panel, and it still gave her a screen that she tells me only gave the choice to put it off for up to three days. She chose the farthest away. I used this registry key.
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
DWORD value: DisableOSUpgrade = 1
Hope it works.
Disable WGA and automatic updates on Windows 7.
The Thom Hartmann syndicated radio show got a rude introduction to Microsoft's new upgrade policy yesterday when their YouTube live stream server went offline and started upgrading while they were on the air. Thom Hartmann was freaking out and asking if listeners could help them switch to Ubuntu. They simulcast on terrestrial radio, Siriusxm, YouTube, and Free Speech TV. Hartmann was updating viewers on the upgrade completion percentage because viewers were complaining about losing their feed. He was livid but what can one do at that point?
Peace, K1
Thanks for responding. It helps to know how this is happening. It suck no matter what though.
Yes, just yesterday I was told by am senior IT person that their computer and their husband's computer upgraded without their permission. funny story is she became upset when her husband's machine upgraded, he got blamed, but then it happened to her's also. She had to eat crow.
‘you will be clearly prompted to choose whether or not to continue’ On my laptop, the only thing I can do in Windows Update is allow it to install itself. There's no option not to do it, and no option to install non-Win10 updates for Win7. Yes, you read that right. I can no longer install Win7 updates, because Windows Update wants me to upgrade to Win10.
Showed up for work last Monday and saw one box had switched over even after telling the nag screens NO. I had to do the uninstall because we have software that does not work properly under 10. I can't recommend GWX Control Panel enough. It removes all signs of 10 and even the 4Gb of files it downloads without telling you.
If that is true, unfortunately it starts to sounds like an antitrust violation. While it's all based on the same kernel so arguably updates, they consider big enough updates to be separate products and should not be using their auto-update ability to force you to change operating systems when you explicitly deny permission.
I have no problem with an auto-update for home users after asking permission and explaining the security issues, though.
Then we are all f.... God help us all! M$ has gone mad within its own principles.
There's a script here: https://voat.co/v/technology/c... that will hide and even uninstall the "updates" that nag you about or install WinX.
Immediately did the Windows 7 recovery which was unattended and smooth, to be fair to MS, but then I got a 1 hours countdown to Windows 10 install once I logged in, took about 4 clicks to navigate away from the "Go ahead and upgrade" buttons that were present at every step but did manage to cancel out.
Changed the Windows Update setting so I no longer do automatic updates on this PC and hid the Windows 10 Update so hopefully it'll stay on Win 7 now.
And while Win 10 seems perfectly usable, I let a spare laptop update itself and have Win 10 Insider running in a VM on another PC I'm old enough to believe in the *Personal* part of Personal Computer and having the Windows User Experience altered without my explicit consent is an absolute no-no, especially as I'm pretty sure Win 10 breaks a game I (still) like playing, Diablo 1 with the IPX over TCP/IP patch for local LAN play on Win 7 / Win Vista.
I see a bunch of advice about how to jump through multiple flaming hoops to stay with Windows 7. Each works for a while and then MS sends out a new load of malware to again corrupt your PC. So here's the question:
WHY THE HELL ARE YOU NOT MIGRATING TO SOMETHING ELSE??!!!?
Just leave him. The abuse will not stop!
What Microsoft have done with the W7 to W10 upgrade is equivalent to taking your car into a dealership for a routine service, except that when you get it back, you find that it's been turned into a mobile advertising platform, it has the words "Taxi" painted down the side and, even better, Microsoft get the income from rides you are now required to give to advertisers... In legal terms that's an "unconscionable contract", meaning a deal that is *so* one-sided that it is unfair to one party and therefore unenforceable under the law. Microsoft are simply better that most of their users are too stupid to realise that they have become the product.
There needs to be a Cyberman Nadella pic to go along with the Bill Gates Borg.
Cyberman: We have been upgraded.
The Doctor: Into what?
Cyberman: The next level of Windows. We are Windows 10. Every computer will receive a free upgrade. You will become like us.
The Sysadmin: I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for what's been done to you. But listen! This experiment ends - tonight!
Cyberman: Upgrading is compulsory.
The Sysadmin: And if I refuse?
The Doctor: Don't.
The Sysadmin: What happens if I refuse?
The Doctor: I'm telling you, don't!
The Sysadmin: [With more authority] What happens if I refuse?
Cyberman: Then you are not compatible.
The Sysadmin: What happens then?
Cyberman: You will be deleted. [Wipes the hard drive]
What's the over/under on when MS will flag GWX Control Panel as malware and have a "security update" remove it?
My money is on 60 days.
Ian Ameline
This happened to one of my machine.
Windows 7 automatically started Windows 10 upgrade. On boot up, the machine shows the initial Windows 10 screen and then the screen blanks and the computer never comes back.
Thanks Microsoft.
Windows 10 is better and you get it for free.
While the sole Windows user was at school (but could have happened at night, too, with the notebook closed!).
I was asked if I did upgrade to Windows 10 (it was Windows 8 AFAIK), I said no and we were like dumbfounded -- me even more since I use only Linux.
A coworker asked how to avoid the automatic upgrade to W10 and I quite didn't know what to say... other than shrug and act like it's unavoidable. I just elaborated on why Microsoft needs it so desperately.
For these reasons I get disappointed with the low level some posters display when they confuse writing M$ as a protest with someone being childish. It shows how uninformed a person is about Microsoft tactics.
On Thursday, I left my desktop PC idle to have supper. I went back to the room 2-3 hours later to find my system updated to Windows 10. Bunch of cunts. I'm glad this didn't happen at a time I needed the machine badly.
I tried declining the EULA, but the idea of restoring to an unobserved, unknown state seemed even riskier. I left Windows 10 on, but if updates are always going to be a nasty surprise for now on, I cant trust my system to be reliable when I need it. My system could have easily been hosed fresh for my on-line test this week - I'm glad my deadline wasn't on Thursday.
She was working late trying to get a report finished. At 6 pm I got a frantic call saying she was working when the computer suddenly started upgrading something by itself.* In a panic she had pulled the plug. Fortunately she was back to Win 7 when she booted, and I was able to guide her through the steps to prevent Win 10 from trying to force itself on her again. (It tried to install itself again while we were doing this.)
So Microsoft succeeded in wasting an hour of her life when she was supposed to be back home in time to make dinner for her kids. When I was helping her buy and set up the system, I did pitch Linux or Google Apps as free alternatives. But she insisted on Windows and Office for compatibility with corporate clients and government forms. I suspect she'll be a lot more responsive to alternatives the next computer she gets.
* If it's true that it's asking users before installing, my guess is she was hit by a long time Windows bug/feature. Other OSes distinguish between an app being in the foreground (on top of other apps), and having focus. Windows doesn't - the app in the foreground always has focus, and the app with focus is always in the foreground. One of the downsides of this approach is that if a warning dialog pops up while you're typing, your keyboard input is immediately directed to the dialog (it needs to be on top so it's in the foreground, and since it's in the foreground it has focus). When you hit space or enter, the OK button (which is usually pre-selected) receives that keyboard input as confirmation. So you'll be merrily typing away, a dialog flashes on your screen for a millisecond before disappearing, and you have no idea WTF you just agreed to. In the Unix systems I've used, the dialog pops up on top, but the app you were typing in retains focus and thus keeps getting all your keystrokes. To dismiss the dialog, you have to first click it to give it focus, then it'll accept your click or space or enter on OK.
I have to use Windows for school, so I run Win 7 in a VM. I guess I will now make sure that VM instance doesn't connect to the internet. If I need to download a file, I'll download it to the host machine and move it over.
Just saying since the only way to really fix the issue I had with no start menu (or any universal apps, yes I should count my blessings) was to either create a new account or reinstall windows. (I reinstalled it. No sfc and dism didn't fix it.)
Did you know 80 to 90% of the moderators on slashdot wouldn't recognize a troll even if one dragged them under a bridge.
Since the whole GWX debacle began, I've been vetting all updates by hand before applying to Windows 7 to ensure that no telemetry/GWX updates got in. This patch Tuesday, before applying any updates I found that several KBs I had not installed/hidden had reinstalled (due to finding the GWX folder appear on my system). I don't mean that they had unhidden and I had applied them as usual, I mean that without permission they had gone ahead and applied at some unspecified point without intervention (which is _not_ what my update policy is set to)
At this point, I'm treating all Microsoft products as malware and will be ensuring that the company I work for clears any dependence or reliance on Microsoft ASAP. As the senior systems administrator in a medium sized business, you bet this means something.
What is unclear at this point is where government oversight is in all this. Unless you're a hardcore libertarian, you should recognise that this is precisely the kind of s*** that consumer protection laws and regulation is meant to prevent. If some of the reports of medical equipment upgrading before use are true, then lives may very well have been lost, and someone high up at Microsoft needs to do hard jail time.
One is a vanilla Asus tower with yum-cha hardware. The other a super-micro mobo with 12-core AMD 6348 and 64gb ram (ought to be enough for anybody).
Both crashed and burned during the installs and bricked the system requiring me to manually spraying the disk images back on with win7.
C: drive in my Win partition is full. It refused to download even when I asked it to. Too stupid to work.
The downgrade doesn't always work. I've seen it break all internet capability. Maybe the TCP/IP stack got corrupted. The only easy solution was to reinstall Windows 7 from CD.
How many shares does Nadella have in Apple? Just asking....
Hey MS, you charged me a significant premium to get a version of Windows 7 with Media Center CableCard support. If you break that capability I'll happily support a class action lawsuit. Have a nice day.
Count me in on the class action lawsuit.
Why aren't we instead discussing the reasons people do not want Win10 - a free "upgrade"? I understand MSs reasons to want everyone to be on the same platform so that they can move that platform to a service subscription model, but .. isn't the elefant in the room the obvious shortcomings of Win10 as "the last OS Microsoft will release" for the PC platform?
I mean if this is really to be the last large scale release, I'm puzzled by the obvious touchscreen focused UI, the frankly backwards styling and the amount of usability changes since win7 making migration a royal pain in the butt since pretty much everything has moved or been renamed. If you wanted to end on a high note, update the Win7 core and UI with the underpinnings of Win10 and call it a day.
that keeps on giving!
How funny!
M$ said that they would make this mandatory back when they tried it the first time.
Did no one pay attention and prepare?
Windows Users, for the most part, are rightly called, "Windows Losers" for a reason.
And end users, again for the most part, are rightly called, "End Losers" for a reason.
As with previous M$ storms, this one will blow over because the Governments, the Schools, the Corporations don't have anything better.
LOSERS!
All this stuff makes me want to hug my Mac and be thankful that Apple doesn't pull this shit.
Of course, that doesn't mean they might not pull this shit someday, and they already pull different shit (a security update broke the ethernet port on some iMacs recently for example). But every time I get annoyed at Apple about something I look across the aisle at Microsoft and it just seems a hell of a lot worse over there.
Also, Linux... My Linux server has been completely trouble free and stable as a rock.
Agree this is a nightmare and the reason I'm using a Linux desktop for everything but my gaming addiction (but this can't be avoided at work...)
Start - Run - gpedit.msc (launch local group policy editor, this could be done in a domain GPO as well)
Policy - Computer Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows Components - Windows Update
Set the setting "Turn off the upgrade to the latest version of Windows through Windows Update" to "Enabled"
Not sure if this is a fix as I've also re-permissioned th folder c:\Windows\System32\GWX so that only one account on the computer has permissions to it and not the computer itself.
The one thing I'm NOT reading here is "What's wrong with a W10 upgrade?". For a while there, Microsoft was batting nearly 1000 - Win95, 98 and the NT that was there by 1999 were all improvements on the previous version. Everybody upgraded happily. Then it was like Star Trek movies, with every second one sucking, like ME and 2000.
And now, with 8, 8.1 and 10, MS seems to be on a losing streak. I heard some good things about 10 at first, but they've trailed off in a litany of complaints; the negatives clearly outweigh the few positives.
My employer was one of the ones that hung on to XP a long time - I think we were only fully to Win 7 by two years ago. The notion of another corporate-wide upgrade for 4000 machines is so exhausting that it's not even on the timetable, there's no budget to even start preliminary testing.
If the big corporate buyers that are their mainstay are no longer upgrading, it means new capabilities aren't going to appear. They're going to be outpaced by other options. They've lost the momentum, the initiative.
i did a clean install of windows 7, and it will never be allowed to connect to the internet ever again, i use it to run some SDR software because Linux still sucks in the ham radio department, look at the bright side, microsoft never gets to fiddlefuck with it, and it will never get infected with a virus because it never gets to see the internet and i even keep it shut off unless i am using my SDR
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Unless you're running a notebook that's incompatable with Windows 10 due to the lack drivers, like say, some Sony Vaios. And the downgrade option fails so you're left with what amounts to a bricked system.
(Disclaimer: longtime slashdotter, inveterate geek, about 25 years in tech, spent about 1/3 of that consulting or as fte for msft. Been on both sides of the win/linux fence, and for a time Big Beige over in Redmond was good to me. Donor to Mint too.)
I find this crap unconscionable. My brother got caught by it just a few days ago, and called me in desperation because declining the eula after it ran the unprompted install has put the machine in to a blank bluescreen reboot loop. He's shipping the hdd to me to recover a few gigs of pictures and music. He does not want WIn10 because (his words, not mine) -- "We tried it out at work, and the new interface is shit. It's ugly. I don't want it." And then a family friend emailed in the same desperate situation. AND THEN ANOTHER. I've got THREE of these kerfuxxored computers queued up to de-Win10/fix/help out this weekend. Jesus.
So here's the question: What kind of fool would I be to reinstall Win7 or even Win8, after I get his data off the borked drive? Win10 is unacceptable to these customers, but MSFT is unapologetic about their the-customer-is-wrong-fuck-them mission, so this is bound to happen again.
Answer: No damn way am I reinstalling Windows. Mint Linux seems like the obvious choice for the foreseeable future. Mint is pretty, fast as hell, stable, reasonably securable, runs Office 2010 just fine under Wine/Playonlinux, and *everything* else is easier/faster/more stable natively. Mint takes under 15min for a complete install/update and scripted app install, compared to 3-5hrs each for Windows+apps+drivers on bare metal (plus a f#@kpile of $$$ for licenses they can't find/etc). And given that MSFT is hell-bent on forcing Win10 (because of the telemetry-based revenue stream if nothing else), with any Windows reinstall it's likely I'd quickly be right back to the beginning on one or all of these.
Linux is what I've used myself for years, and I knew it was fast/stable/etc/etc but I was always hesitant to push my geeky preferences on others who just want crap to work. In recent years I knew that the ease-of-use equation had tipped away from Windows despite the bluster from Redmond, but still I didn't push. The real surprise for me now is that run-o-the-mill users are so utterly hacked off at MSFT that they're clamoring for what I have: they just want a good stable system with control and no bullshit surprises.
I think not...(*poof*)
Why is it that most of those supporting MS seem to post A/C ?
Can any lawyers here tell me if we can force microsoft to put a stop to this due to unfair business practices and violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ?
"The good news is that you have 30 days to downgrade to the previous version of the OS."
Imagine the average retail user, not expecting an upgrade, not prepared for an upgrade, so perhaps no recent backups and (if it's a home user) perhaps no backups at all. No IT department scan to check application compatibility and peripheral compatibility.
(And does this unsolicited upgrade check to make sure the computer meets Windows 10 system requirements?)
An installation on top of an existing installation, jumping two versions in between (8 and 8.1). But at least going in the direction Microsoft wants, and therefore probably SQAed as well as Microsoft knows how to SQA.
Now suppose the user attempts a downgrade to Windows 7. Another system installation on top of an existing installation, and again jumping over two versions, but this time going in the direction Microsoft thinks is unwanted and unimportant and probably has not tested quite as thoroughly.
What do you think are the chances it works _well_ afterwards?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
That plug in the back that looks like a wide telephone cord? Unplug that and stuff.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
A real problem with the Small Claims procedures here in England is that the time you can spend trying to figure out what you have to do and then going through the formal process can easily be worth more than what you would get back if you won a reasonable level of compensation for the original issue. Realistically, you might have to figure the whole thing out without the aid of a lawyer, because unlike most courts you typically can't claim costs for legal assistance even if you win. It seems that you also shouldn't expect to get compensation for your own time spent on the legal work, again even if you win.
I have previously made a genuine effort to go after a small business that blatantly ripped me off for a few hundred pounds by changing its tune and failing to deliver what was originally promised. I had some reasonable evidence of this and could have made a decent case in about five minutes for why their in-writing version of events was completely implausible. However, I gave up in disgust when I still had no idea how to actually submit my evidence after probably £1,000+ worth of my time and reading dozens of pages of official documentation, and I then discovered that I probably wasn't going to be able to claim any sort of compensation for all that time even if I won and even though a significant part of it was wasted by the other party giving me the run around.
Small Claims procedures, where you can get an official court ruling on a relatively minor dispute with very little cost to either side, are a great idea in theory. However, if you can't write down the important parts of the process on a single piece of paper in language a normal (not legally trained) person can understand and follow, the whole thing is in danger of wasting more time and costing more money than it saves. I'm sorry to say that despite being naturally inclined to litigate on principle anyway in a case like that, rationally I wouldn't even consider it in future if the case wasn't worth enough to hire a real lawyer at my own expense to help prepare even though I knew I wouldn't get those legal fees back no matter the outcome.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Begin in earnest, the kind that teaches a lesson.
I think a lawsuit over this could get class action status. This is where M$ could get hit hard over this. One would hope anyway....
The Truth is a Virus!!!
Please enlighten me.
In what possible way are you interpreting this as offering support for MS?
Lighten up.
Why is it that most of those supporting MS seem to post A/C ?
I don't, and I see people calling me a MS shill (which is silly, since they don't pay me anything).
I have installed Windows 10 on dozens of machines, more than 10 of my own machines. I've done everything from clean installs to updates, and it has worked perfectly every time on everything.
The strangest install I've done was on a 2007 Core2Quad machine that had Windows XP on it, I did a dual boot install of Windows 7 years ago on that machine, then upgraded Windows 7 to 8.0, then again to 8.1. Last year I upgraded Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. Not a single clean install since 7 was put there.
Works fine, nothing wrong at all. It is one of my test machines so it gets a lot of stuff installed and removed from it, frankly it probably needs a clean install, but since everything works, why?
All these people complaining about problems with 10, I just haven't seen them.
Okay, first off, I'm going to sound unreasonable. Why? Because I have a Mac laptop, two iPads, a GNU/Linux laptop from System 76, a white-box GNU/Linux desktop, and a Windows desktop. The Windows desktop runs Windows 10. Why? Because, really, if you choose to run Windows Microsoft owns that shit, but I want an Oculus Rift system, and so here it sits. Every IT decision you make comes with trade-offs. I am so tired of hearing from the Windows7/WinXP crowd bitching that their relationship with Microsoft is being totally thwarted by Microsoft behaving the way it has since 2000. Pick your poison, celebrate the awesomeness that comes from that choice and quit ranting on the Internet about the sads you feel.
That is all.
It's not good when you can't even force your shit on people for free.
Disclaimer: I opted-in by purchasing a Windows 10 device.
Requiem for the American Dream
Will someone w/ a pirated version of Windows 7 - where one does not get automatic updates - also be forcibly upgraded to Windows 10? I know of many such installations, so would they be in luck?
Why hasn't someone sued MS for time/productivity lost because one of these forced upgrades broke some mission critical piece of software?
Where I used to work we had a few servers that if they failed the productivity of the production floor would drop by about 30%, might not sound like much but in terms of labor and failed completion targets it could add up to thousands of dollars a day, And the software was pretty much locked to the OS, change the OS or update the wrong driver and it stopped working. I kept it air gaped and had updates set to manual, I'd open the cabinet and plug in the network cable every month or so to install updates.
$DEITY only know what the joker they promoted to replace me has done with my security measures, he thought RAID 1 was a suitable back up solution and you would not believe the number of infected files I found in the torrented software he had downloaded and installed before I took over the IT duties.
1) They do NOT prompt you.
A week ago we woke up to find my Wife's PC running Windows 10.
2) If you remove it, they do it again, over and over.
3) The cure and solution is a good piece of software that is free and easy to use:
GWX Control Panel
http://www.majorgeeks.com/file...
Maurice W. Hilarius Voice: (778) 347-9907
This is just fucking rude, and a bad idea on Microsoft's part.
If a site does not let you use an ad blocker...go someplace else.
Someone at MS should have their fingers amputated so they can never again impose the soul-to-hell inflicting painful experience of having to contend with their botched upgrades. Am on site at a customer and my Dell laptop suddenly decides it should be upgraded at 4:30pm. Forces my babysitter to watch along with me after COB for more than an hour how windows f&*-+ng 10 botches an upgrade and sends me into a 2 day endless update blue-screen-reboot loop at €750 a day. I would have conducted the amputation myself if the MS bastard was near
No disrespect intended, but I don't know where GWX Control Panel comes from or what it might do to my system so I followed Microsoft's official instructions: How to manage Windows 10 notification and upgrade options. For those affected by this GWX malware, the process includes downloading and installing a not-automatically-distributed update (KB 3065987 or 3065988), setting a newly available group policy, and adding registry values.
The article is not exactly easy to follow - I do not recommend this approach to my non-techie friends and relatives - but it works, is officially sanctioned, and requires no extension of trust to a third party.
What does the curry muncher have to say about all this? He seems silent.
Thankfully this all ends in July. I'm sure we'll get lots of cheerful statistics from Microsoft, but it'll be over and they'll leave us alone.
One of my laptops is staying at Windows 7 because it's old, it runs 7 fine, it physically CANNOT run Windows 10 due to some BIOS issues, and anyway, all the things I use it for (mainly programing two-way radios) works just fine on a slow, old Windows 7 laptop.
It does not need to run Windows 10 for ANY reason. Not even security. This old laptop is not used for web surfing or banking or games or Facebook or porn or anything like that. It does not need to have updates for the next 10 years. It is extremely unlikely to acquire a security issue or virus or malware but it does have software loaded to prevent that.
So right now that laptop is fine. It will not go to 10 and has no need for 10. If they try to force 10 on it, it will NOT work and it will screw up the goddamn laptop. I know this because I already tried it to see what it would do and end result was having to restore the drive from a backup made before the attempt. 10 is fundamentally incompatible with this machine even if their update checker thing says otherwise. It won't work and they'd better not fuck up my machine.
Sig for hire.
It's a new OS.
My query is if they install and don't ask for you to sign the Win10 EULA first, in what way have you agreed to any of the terms (or any future terms) at all?
Just send MS an email telling them by installing their OS on your machine, they agree to lifetime upgrades to all OSes on any machine you own for your lifetime (not the lifetime of the machine) for free.
This will, I guarantee, not constitute them agreeing if it installs Win10 on your system afterward.
Meanwhile many companies don't get that option. I managed a few small companies ... like 10-20 computers each. I took the OEM version of Windows 7 Pro and replaced it with a standard install using a volume license key that each company purchased to make management easier.
Well unless you have Software Advantage, they can't upgrade to Windows 10 without paying.
That's ridiculous. They paid for Windows 7 with purchase of new PC. If I hadn't wiped it and replaced it with a vol license install, they could upgrade to 10 for free. But no.... So you have to pay for Windows once, then again for the volume license install, then again to go to 10.
then again, im not a retard, just an asshole
Average Joe: Yeah, I'll get right on that, so you want me to edit all this text do you? Why is my computer not working now, I did what you told me to do.
You might be a super "wiz", but well over 50% of the people that use computers are genuine legal retards. In the most honest "they are actually retards" sense.
These are people that barely even know the scrollbar exists (clicking the arrows), never mind scrollwheel.
There is no technical solution to retards, and still not one for tech illiterate.
This is an entirely a legal issue.
They are bricking peoples machines by the thousands with updates on new and old machines. They aren't even testing things because the bloody fired half the damn testers.
Win10 is, in all honesty, not even pre-alpha tier software. It is a rushed mess.
I think there are laws with regards to that as well.
I mean, it seems like the equivalent of a door to door to door vacuum sales man knocking on your door. You answer you are aren't interested. Then they start hammering on your door, you are annoyed, but you ignore them. Then they are like, screw it. Sledgehammer your door open, start shouting about how awesome their product is as they start knocking things over with their unwanted vacuum. You try telling them that it REALLY isn't something that you want and they respond, I can't hear you over how awesome this vacuum is.
Restore the madness of youth's lechery
Like many on this site,no doubt, I end up doing tech support for all the older family members in my area. I gradually moved them all to Linux in the era of WinXP because I could see where MS was going and how dangerous the web would get, particularly with people social engineering the elderly. The transition from the XP desktop to any Linux distro with KDE was relatively easy, with most issues tracing to Linux's abominable printer and audio support. The transition from IE to Firefox went amazingly well as all of them found Firefox superior. In the years since, the ONLY tech support I generally need provide is the following:
1. updates to Flash when sites that provide video cause a user to panic with warnings about the need to upgrade.
2. solving printer issues. CUPS sucks for people who are nut UNIX gurus, and there is just no explaining to an older user why they must go through a web browser, login, or do other wild or crazy things when their printer has a paper jam or why a printer that can to particular things on Windows, is less-capable with Linux.
3. solving audio problems. Radio stations in this area are routinely interfered with by broadcasters over the border in Mexico, so some relatives discovered they could get their favorite programs via internet streaming. Unfortunately, US distros do not legally support the MP3 files which some web sites use, the common Amarok player in Linux land completely sucks for anybody who just wants to click on a file and play it, and a seemingly endless array of other audio issues always seem to arise in Linux, which seems unique among desktop OS's in having no standard audio API and therefore seems to be a total mess in the bird's nest of audio code "solutions".
4. One system running Fedora simply refuses to auto-update its Firefox. I have no clue as to why that one install, which is identical to two others, behaves that way, and I've always been too busy to dig deeply into it, but It just means that one system needs little extra time periodically when I do the occasional install of a new Firefox version.
Would I move anybody back to Windows from Linux? NEVER! The problems in Linux land are trivial compared to Windows land, and I shudder at the thought of trying to keep a collection of elderly Windows users safe on the web while permitting them to enjoy all the web content they like.
Are you really okay with BIG BROTHER?! Welcome to '1984'!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
Updates to - Never check for updates
Get rid of KB-s
KB 3035583 – According to Microsoft, this update enables “additional capabilities for Windows Update notifications when new updates are available”.
KB 2952664 – Labeled a compatibility upgrade for upgrading Windows 7, its purpose is to “make improvements to the current operating system in order to ease the upgrade experience to the latest version of Windows”.
KB 2976978 – A compatibility update for Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 which “performs diagnostics on the Windows system [..] to determine whether compatibility issues may be encountered when the latest Windows operating system is installed.
KB 3021917 – Does the same as KB 2976978 but on Windows 7.
KB 3044374 – This update for Windows 8.1 enables systems to upgrade from the current operating system to a later version of Windows.
KB 2990214 . Does the same as KB 3044374 but on Windows 7.
KB3022345 Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry.
KB3068708 (replaces KB3022345) Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry.
KB3075249 Update that adds telemetry points to consent.exe in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7.
KB3080149 Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry.
KB2876229 SKYPE, If you want Skype then install it.
KB2923545 RDP
KB2970228
KB3068708 Telemetry
KB2592687
KB2660075
KB2506928
KB3050265
KB2726535
KB2994023
KB2545698 (IE9)
KB3065987
KB3068707
KB 2977759 - W10 Diagnostics Compatibility telemetry
I'm still to hear a good excuse for not wanting to upgrade........
just a bunch of fuddie duddies scared of change
Íf updating to windows 10 has caused software incompatibility issues because you haven't regularly updated your software then you only have yourself to blame
Hahahahahahahahha, JK, been on Linux for 4 years and enjoying the show "mit großer schadenfreude."
I Didn/t Like That I Have To Sign Up for MS Account for Win 10 upgrade from Win 7 Pro. MS IS CRAZY They Want All Your Information Got The Nerve IM Suprised MS Doesn't Ask for A Credit Card # lol to sign up for Win 10. yeah im pretty HAPPY with Win 7 Not to mention I Have enough acoununts Worried about All That info Micosoft is Aquireing lol
What, you haven't heard of this thing called Internet Search Engine Technology? Welcome, time traveler from 1981!
Section 8 of the EULA says you don't own the software. PERIOD. You don't own it and under the validation clause Microsoft can modify it any way they want, at any time, without any notice. And if that causes any damage to you or any other party, the damages Microsoft may pay are limited to the price you paid for the software, and since you got it free with the hardware, that would be a total of nothing, unless your local state law provides differently (good luck with that one).
I guess you shouldn't have clicked through without reading it, sucker...
I've already gone and disabled Automatic updates on my Win7 machine and so far after deleting the KB and GWX folders, I haven't had any issues.
I can't say Im too confident that it will stay that way for long as M$ is constantly looking for more nefarious ways to ram Win10 down my throat.
I did actually upgrade my Win8.1 Laptop to 10 and it's not bad, but I don't want that on my gaming rig. I'll gladly move to MintLinux or SteamOS long before that happens.
Have you ever fallen asleep at the keybhanusdiog?
Back in November we received some new PCs with very "niche" automation control software installed that we needed for some special hardware. The special software had many unique tweaks to get it to work with the hardware it was connected to.
The new PCs had Win8.1
We wanted 7 and tried to downgrade to it. However the license on the PCs wouldn't(easily) allow for that according to both MS and the company we bought the PCs/software from. Everyone happily said to just wipe and install 7, however we didn't want to lose the settings for the preinstalled/configured software... I spoke with someone at their company and I asked why they shipped these with 8.1 and not 7. They said we didn't ask for 7. They also told us in no uncertain terms were we to upgrade to WX, as that would break their software. They told me this as I was looking at the taskbar with "Get Windows 10 Upgrade", knowing that the clock was ticking on an automatic upgrade to 10, which would fubar the system. I told this to their developer and the irony was lost on him.
I backed up the preinstalled/configured software, wiped the PCs and installed 7, drivers, joined to the domain/GP, etc, the reinstalled the special software, then spent several days/emails/phone calls getting it working.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
Honestly, most of the posts trashing MS on technical points are crap. Either the understanding of the tech is wrong, or there is total ignorance of supported/recommended solutions.
I'm not supporting MS any reasonable sense. I hate W10 telemetry, and forcing it on users is bad.
I will not install the OS on my personal PCs unless I can shut it off. And I'm not buying a 5-pack of Enterprise licenses to do it (that's the smallest number to qualify as a volume customer, and it's more than I need).
But people here are complaining about an automatic process that only occurs if you let it. You must set Windows install updates automatically and also choose to receive recommended updates the same way as critical updates, otherwise it will not happen.
Windows Update asks you what you want the first time you run it, so this is on the user---if the user is even slightly tech-savvy. I have some sympathy for ignorant users, but the paranoid attitude on Slashdot is completely unfounded. There are at least four different ways to prevent this automatic upgrade from happening.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.