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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.
...
In that case, my laptop (for convenience, the only device of mine running Windows) is now auto-scheduled for a Linux installation this year...
Ezekiel 23:20
I have scheduled a migration to Linux Mint on the exact same date!
Well, jolly.
And a lot of complaints as those XP / Vista machines struggle to boot due to lack of drivers.
Confirmed.
Yes, this happened to my instance of Win 7 on my laptop just a few days ago. I *never* gave permission for a Win 10 upgrade and *specifically* deselected the stealth updates....and fucking Microsoft went ahead and "upgraded" it to Win 10 anyway.
But it gets worse.
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. Apparently I need some sort of Windows Live account or some other password, but I honestly have no idea. I am locked out of that entire partition.
My files are there, but I can't get to them. I can't login and so I'm literally locked out of my own PC thanks to the Win 10 forced upgrade.
Fortunately, I installed Linux Mint on it a while ago, and so that's what Ill be using on it from now on I guess. I can boot into that partition at least.
Thanks Microsoft, you shit-eating pukebags.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
You would be at least a bit more trusted if you didn't post as "Anonymous Coward".
And the number of reported cases of "auto-install" is too high to dismiss.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
My local game store's Point Of Sale laptop started updating to Windows 10 on it's own in the middle of the work day. It was during an MTG release/tournament day, so he had tons of sales that he was frantically trying to keep track of in a makeshift ledger book. And then, of course, his POS software wasn't working once Windows 10 finished installing - it was an older software package, I'm not sure exactly which. He ended up buying a newer edition, and transferring is sales database to that, but only after staying up late trying to troubleshoot his old software. What did this Windows users gain from this experience? A lot of stress, missed sales, flat icons for his UI. Thanks, Microsoft.
Windows 10 was released almost ten months ago, not eight. Fortunately that leaves just under two and one half months, not four, until the anniversary update after which strong arm upgrade tactics should stop.
"...Microsoft's malware-like upgrade system..."
This isn't "malware-like", this IS malware.
Win 10 takes control of your PC from you, collects all sorts of data on you and from you and sends it back to who god where. You cannot stop it and it can "upgrade" or alter itself at will whenever it wants without your permission (and sometimes explicitly against your permission).
If that isn't "malware", I don't know the meaning of the word.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
And a lot of complaints as those XP / Vista machines struggle to boot due to lack of drivers.
That would true for Windows XP-certified computers, but not for Windows Vista-certified computers. I rebuilt my computer nine years ago for Windows Vista. I had no problems upgrading to Windows 7/8/8.1/10. For older devices that don't have a Windows 10 driver, I manually install the Windows Vista driver to get them working again.
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.
Actually I find it unlikely that the military wants Cortana.
For folks who aren't terribly computer savvy (So.. theoretically not Slashdot)
Go get "Never 10" freeware from GRC... it uses the officially Microsoft sanctioned means of permanently disabling the whole "Get Windows 10" stuff
https://www.grc.com/never10.ht...
This is a good option for "mom support"
For those willing to muck about in the registry:
Open Regedit, navigate to the following key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
Important: If that key doesn't exist, you'll need to create it.
Create a DWORD value called DisableOSUpgrade and set it to 1
There's also a good quick and dirty:
http://www.windowsmechanic.com...
The Digital Sorceress
GWX control panel http://ultimateoutsider.com/do... it'll remove the Windows 10 upgrade app and prevent an automatic upgrade.
The UK. Everyone has the right to legal redress, including the Small Claims Court, and you can't give that up no matter what you sign.
This was the case in the UK before it joined the EU, but the EU has also adopted the principal so all EU countries are the same.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC