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Microsoft Auto-Scheduling Windows 10 Updates (tomshardware.com)
Pikoro quotes this report from Tom's Hardware: Windows 10 has been with us for a little over eight months now, which means there are only about four months remaining to get a free upgrade from an older Windows operating system. As the clock counts down, Microsoft has begun to auto-schedule PCs to upgrade to Windows 10 with or without consent from end users.
Now, as we near the end of the free upgrade period, Microsoft's malware-like upgrade system is becoming even more intrusive by autoscheduling upgrades to Windows 10. I noticed that the Windows 10 upgrade reminder pop-up on a Windows 7 PC was no longer asking me to upgrade; instead, it's now informing me that it has already scheduled an update for May 17.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Marine Corps has discovered half their computers unexpectedly can't remotely upgrade to Windows 10, slowing their transition to what they expect to be a much more secure operating system.
Now, as we near the end of the free upgrade period, Microsoft's malware-like upgrade system is becoming even more intrusive by autoscheduling upgrades to Windows 10. I noticed that the Windows 10 upgrade reminder pop-up on a Windows 7 PC was no longer asking me to upgrade; instead, it's now informing me that it has already scheduled an update for May 17.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Marine Corps has discovered half their computers unexpectedly can't remotely upgrade to Windows 10, slowing their transition to what they expect to be a much more secure operating system.
I'm not posting AC but you still do no know who I am. I find nothing disagreeable with his statement and certainly posting Anonymous Coward doesn't automagically invalidate anything being said. I just built two windows 10 workstations to test comparability with some specific software and put libre office on one of them. A higher up making a lot more money than I decided he needed an office suite and did the same. Turns out he cannot be assed to look at the domain name and went to some site that looked like a child created it with the .in or some extension like that instead of .org. He put icons on his desktop for the applications but installed a crapton of spyware in the process and one of them actually popped up a message saying microsoft support, clink on the link to resolve this application issue. It then gave him a phone number to call which he did and they wanted a credit card. He will not admit to giving a credit card number but I found out when he asked my why I liked libre office when it doesn't run right and wants you to pay more than the site license of MS office we had.
Of course this same moron had some say in the two programs I am trying to find a work around for because they do not work the same from windows 7 to windows 10 and there seems to be no easy way to pull data to another program. To be fair, it was a legacy ordeal patched into win7 from XP. But in my experience, this is not unusual for the types of people who seem to get paid the most in IT. They are better bullshitters than techs and it puts used car salesmen in good standing in some cases.
Upon booting I'm presented with a Login screen that insists on a password. This machine never had a password on it, but now it does and I have no idea what it is. I cannot get in to my own PC now.
Something is wrong with this story, because the above makes no sense.
More likely you have an infected computer or someone else played with it or you don't know what you're doing.
Windows 7/8 upgrades to 10 don't change or insert passwords.
:) the irony is that if MS simply sold that version for $100 I'll bet a number of people would buy it.
Offer the current version for $19 or the super secure and locked down version for $100. Just make it the Enterprise LTSB version, I imagine someone wants it. :)
With the price of a good sized NAS these days being around the cost of a dinner for two at a restaurant
I went to a *nice* steakhouse on Valentine's day in New York City, and two 18-ounce boneless steaks, three sides, an appetizer, two glasses of red wine (mid-range), two cappuccinos, and dessert cost about $250.
A drive-free Netgear or Synology NAS costs about $220 on Newegg. 3TB hard disks are about $100 a pop on sale, so we'll assume a simple RAID-1 to start out on. Not exactly "good sized" by my standards personally (My NAS has 15TB raw), but we'll roll with it.
Where the hell are you going for dinner??
I have several pieces of expensive professional software that required activation installed on my work Windows 7 box. As we discovered after a sudden drive failure on the previous machine, all the back-ups in the world won't help you in that situation, and presumably it would be the same if you suddenly lost access due to the unexpected Windows 10 update and imaginary password issue described here.
This is, of course, a very good argument against accepting that sort of software activation in the first place. Sadly, in some professional markets, you literally won't have a choice if you want/need to use any of the top level software products.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
A few thoughts:
1. People are afraid of change, good or bad.
2. People are comfortable with they have and don't see why they need "new".
3. MS probably pushed too hard on Windows 10 and should have rolled out some of the features over time, rather than at launch.
So some people are avoiding it for different reasons. Me? I had most machines on Windows 8.1 Update, but my personal computer was still on 7. Windows 10 finally got me to upgrade, I like it over 7 for many reasons.
Windows will never be perfect, but on balance 10 is superior to 7 all things considered, at least for most people.
Another point to consider... Staying on Windows 7 isn't really an option long term. Drivers slowly won't get updated for it, new hardware won't really be supported, etc.
For the next 2 years or so, Windows 7 remains a sort-of option for many people, but quickly won't as we approach 2020 when all public support ends.
In the age of the Internet, you simply have to stay up to date. If you're unconnected and run local programs only, then it isn't required, but those days are gone for most people.
Your point about drivers is fair for new equipment, but doesn't matter if someone already has a working system and they aren't changing their hardware. And of course, it does cut both ways, as there have been various hardware-related problems with Windows 10 that don't affect earlier versions (and in some cases, the combination of those with the automatic updates has rendered Windows 10 systems literally unusable).
I'm not disputing that 10 also has some useful advantages over earlier versions, though in my case it's not even a possibility because of the privacy and security implications, and I think the day-to-day UI is significantly worse than what I already have with 7. I'm still waiting to see anything I'd call a killer feature; certainly the high-profile additions like Cortana, Edge and DirectX 12 aren't it.
As for always being up-to-date, in practice there's no guarantee that any software you buy will have security issues fixed, so relying on a single line of defence is never a very good strategy if you can avoid it. As I was just commenting in another post, the industry is interesting in that because at least the major software developers do tend to issue updates to fix glaring problems in their products post-sale, they seem to get cut a lot of slack for supplying a poor quality product in the first place. I suspect that before too long, given the increasing customer-hostile trends in the industry in terms of built-in obsolescence and forced update cycles (literally or just practically), there may be actual laws or other government regulation mandating certain minimum standards for support in digital products unless the industry gets its act together.
As for 2020, I'm honestly not worried about that at all. Windows 7 still has about 50% of the entire global market share for desktop/laptop OSes. Windows 10 is barely above Windows XP, and by the numbers it looks like most of its take-up has been Windows 8/8.1 users, not 7. I don't expect the current senior management team at Microsoft to survive in their posts for very much longer since by business standards the launch of Windows 10 has been very poorly received, and I expect the new management team to go back to more familiar territory and try to repair the damage that has been done to Microsoft's reputation before literally half their customers run out of support on Windows 7. Otherwise, if significant numbers of customers really do start switching to Apple laptops, mobile devices, or whatever other options appear within the next four years or so, Microsoft probably is finished as a serious player in the industry.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.