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Microsoft's Get Windows 10 App, KB 3035583, Reappears (infoworld.com)
An anonymous reader shares an InfoWorld article: Once again, Microsoft has unleashed the GWX Kraken, with no explanation and no description. The latest KB 3035583 appears as a "Recommended" optional patch for Windows 7 and 8.1. Those with Automatic Update turned on and "Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates" checked -- the default settings -- will see the patch as a checked, optional update, and it will be installed the next time Automatic Update runs. If you previously hid KB 3035583, it's now unhidden. I'm sure there are a dozen people on earth who still have Auto Updates turned on, "Recommended updates" checked, and who haven't yet accepted Microsoft's kind invitation for a free copy of Windows 10. This one's for them. In late March 2015, Microsoft released the first version of KB 3035583. Described as "Update enables additional capabilities for Windows Update notifications in Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 SP1," the patch immediately raised eyebrows. In April of last year, a German researcher named Gerard Himmelein, writing at heise.de, figured out that Microsoft was sneaking a Windows 10 upgrader onto Win7 and 8.1 machines. Life for Win7 and 8.1 customers since then has degenerated into Win10 whack-a-mole.In some other news, Chinese news outlet Xinhua reports that plenty of users in China are unhappy about Microsoft's push to get them to mandatorily upgrade their Windows OS. "The company has abused its dominant market position and broken the market order for fair play," Xinhua quoted Zhao Zhanling, a legal adviser with the Internet Society of China, as saying.
I've had to hide KB 3035583 over a dozen times now. It's really not worth my time to micromanage this crap on every PC in my office, so I just installed GWX Control Pane: http://www.majorgeeks.com/file...
Jesus Christ, we get it. Microsoft recommends people upgrade their operating system to the newest one. Big fucking deal, let it go. Reading Slashdot means like I'm continually kept updated on whenever Microsoft recommends people to upgrade. I don't need to be in on the loop about it.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
I couldn't possibly think of a better way to sell Linux.
Anyone who ever thought that Windows was a useful product is a fucking idiot. They deserve what they get.
for me, this is something like the 7th time that I have had to hide/uninstall this update.
On the plus side, this makes me want Linux on my desktop more than ever before!
Spybot Anti-Beacon: block and stop the various tracking (telemetry) issues present in Windows 7/8/8.1/10
https://www.safer-networking.o...
"Spybot Anti-Beacon is a standalone tool which was designed to block and stop the various tracking (telemetry) issues present in Windows 10. It has since been modified to block similar tracking functionality in Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems.
Anti-Beacon is small, simple to use, and is provided free of charge. It was created to address the privacy concerns of users of Windows 10 who do not wish to have information about their PC usage sent to Microsoft. Simply clicking "Immunize" on the main screen of Anti-Beacon will immediately disable any known tracking features included by Microsoft in the operating system.
If any issues occur with your PC while using Anti-Beacon, undoing the changes made can be done by clicking the "Undo" button in the main window. This will re-enable all tracking services. If you experience any issues using Anti-Beacon or have any suggestions/recommendations, please be sure to let us know on the forum thread relating to this tool."
Install Linux, problem solved.
He publicly said there will be one billion devices running Win 10 within one year of its release, and by hook or by crook he'll do it.
What the FUCK are they thinking? I'm a paid customer for 20 years now and they think they can fuck with me like this?
Linux time, bitches. You forced me!
I have updates set to notify me but down download or install so I can check through the list to block any I don't want. Every time I see KB3035583 I hide the update, after which I shouldn't see it again. However, it keeps coming back no matter how I try to block it. Looking at my updates now I see four optional updates available, with KB3035583 once again in the list.
How is this not considered malware and why is Microsoft not being investigated for this?
If Microsoft feels it needs to look like a malware-distributor in order to get Windows 10 on its customers' PCs, then the uptake of Windows 10 must not be as good as Microsoft needs it to be. In fact, it may be much worse, much, much worse.
I've been fighting off this upgrade on my network at work for months now. I deployed a GPO with a template MS provides to stop the forced upgrade of Win7 machines to Win10, but I still see that damned little icon on my user's system tray. I don't condone, but understand their strategy for pushing out Win10 to home users, they don't want another Windows XP, where a popular but mostly out of date OS keeps a small, bug significant chunk of the market long after support ends. What I don't understand is forcing this update on domain joined machines that are obviously part of a business network and the upgrade should be left up to the sysadmin (me). I know there's little love for MS on this site, but they have gotten worse and those of us working in enterprise/domaine environments shouldn't have to employ registry hacks and GPO templates to keep our client machines from forcefully being upgraded to the latest OS.
640k ought to be enough for anyone.
Disable Windows Updates, problem solved.
IMO M$ really needs to have a flash app which allows you every so often to "punch the monkey" to avoid installation of Windows 10.
I mean come on, at least make it entertaining!
The only half-way safe way to run Microsoft software is inside a virtual machine, with very limited network access, preferably none.
Do not let it access your hardware directly.
Do not ever let it access your files or network directly. It can contaminate your files, spread malware throughout the network.
I always have a scratch hard drive that I use to transfer files between the microsoft VM and the linux host. Never ever let the Microsoft software see more files than it absolutely needs to.
It amazes me that people have been so accepting of Microsoft's abuse.
3 ideas:
1) Autopatcher has not begun supporting Windows 10. We need independent control over Windows operating system updates. How can we achieve that?
2) Don't let Windows connect to the internet. Microsoft has a long, long history of releasing very buggy code and fixing it later. After fixing 2,722 vulnerabilities and bugs, Microsoft declared Microsoft Windows XP "end of life".
3) We need international support for a Windows-compatible operating system, like ReactOS.
Disable Windows Updates and you'll likely just end up swapping from one brand of self-installing malware to another.
This is plain bad marketing strategy. Microsoft Windows 10 is actually a decent operating system, unlike that shit slab Windows 8.1 and the status-quo Windows 7. I tried Windows XP and went *back* to Linux, and that was freaking Mandrake 8; Windows 7 wasn't much of any kind of improvement, and Windows 8.1 was just "has the right APIs to run Unity 3D". Windows 10 surprised me enough that I sometimes stay on it as a casual OS rather than flipping back and forth if I'm doing a bunch of things *and* Unity 3D; so why aren't they playing up all the incredible improvements in Windows 10 as a migration strategy, rather than annoying the user into submission?
Support my political activism on Patreon.
IMO Windows 10 is to privacy what 95/98 was to stability.
OPTIONAL Windows Updates:
Although I have previously installed|run UltimateOutsider's GWX Control Panel.
Are people planning to never upgrade? Does resisting make sense because Windows 10 breaks compatibility with previous versions or software?
I get that Windows 10 may over-tax some hardware, but again, what is the endgame? Is running a deprecated Windows OS a viable strategy, content/security/functionality wise?
I can understand why people would wish that they didn't have to upgrade to an OS version that they don't really want. I just don't see how anything other than ditching Windows once and for all is a good answer.
If you want software that helps you do what you want, then clearly don't get windows.
Twinstiq, game news
... that of all the companies in the world, it was Microsoft itself who finally launched Year Of The Linux Desktop.
I don't agree with how they're doing it, but the simple fact is that Microsoft is totally done supporting Windows 7 for home users. They're desperate to avoid another Windows XP-style upgrade cycle. Even getting Win7 support for businesses is getting trickier; Microsoft has basically announced that the next revision of business PCs won't natively support Windows 7, and support is limited to a very small list of business-only PCs...so they're not killing support, but just making it really hard to get it.
I'm hoping they'll soften their stance on Windows as a Service and go back to a more traditional release timeframe, but for home users that kind of model is the right choice. Grandma isn't running crazy custom VB6 applications that can't be modernized and must work. She is, however, an inexperienced computer user who is probably happy with a remote servicing model, just like iOS.
Under the hood and without the spyware/Cortana/Store, Windows 10 is actually a good upgrade. It has decent performance on low end hardware. Now that Windows Phone is all but dead, I'm hoping they'll start loosening some of the mobile-inspired UI decisions they made and start allowing custom theming again. The second someone comes up with a Windows 7 look-alike theme for Windows 10, I'm sure a huge chunk of users will move to 10. I skipped Windows 8 because I hated the UI so much, for example, and didn't come back until 8.1's last update.
Yup, Microsoft are still cunts.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
There are several "updates" in the latest batch that have to do with upgrading, including some in the "Optional" updates section.
I found 3 or 4 Win 10 upgrade packages in the "recommended" section and at least 2 in the "Optional" section.
Fucking Microsoft, how many times do I have to say "NO"?
What part of "NO" seemed unclear the first 5 times??
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
"I work with it daily and even I don't have Linux as a desktop OS at home by choice for a variety of reasons, and don't have it as a desktop OS at work per corporate policy."
Who gives a shit?
BTW, word of mouth is spreading. Even TBBT comedy TV show references Linux and Ubuntu in at least one episode.
It's raining shills in here today.
a $100 cash payment for upgrading to Windows 10, they would've gotten people to upgrade sooner, and it would've cost them less than all the sneaky efforts and related man-power has cost them so far.
I first started using Linux as a desktop OS in 2005 (Ubuntu 5.04). At the time, the few people that knew I was using it at home thought I was a kook. I didn't try changing any of their minds. I just told them that I like the stability and power it gave me over my files.
Over the past 11 years I enjoyed the stability of Linux-based systems and learned a bit about the various distributions. I used to install updated OSs every 6 months for new features, but now settle on Linux Mind LTS releases whenever they come out.
And now the people that know me as the local tech geek ask me about Windows 10 and I just shrug and say I use Linux. Instead of disdain, they now show interest. Asking about pre-installed computers versus Mac versus iOS.
I generally push them towards a Mac (for those that produce content) or iOS (for those that just browse the web).
And for the rare person that wants to know more, I'll burn them a Linux Mint live CD and tell them to give it a spin before installing it.
Since MS started this, there have been many sites offering Win 7 ISO that don't require activation.
Other sites explain how to use you own ISO and remove the activation requirement.
Have these always been around, or is this something new?
Had this tactic been applied by one person on another, it would've constituted attempted rape.
Install ReactOS, problem solved.
This pisses me off. My wife's laptop can't upgrade to 8.1 or 10 because there are a lack of drivers, which makes the upgraded laptop unstable and unusable. I've already wasted two weekends to down grade the OS from 8.1 and 10 back to 8.0. If I have to do this AGAIN because of MSFT, I'm going to get my wife a Mac.
"It's not like your minds are as open as the source you love..." - Me to the majority of Slashdot.
and make sure to upgrade the PC computer to Windows 10 system so as to have the best with regard to speed and safety features.
What really gets me the most, is the fact that they do not support free upgrades from Vista. Only from Windows 7 and up. If their upgrade problem had included Vista, people would have cheered them on. With It is becoming more and more common for software to have Windows 7 as a minimum requirement, this would have helped out a small number of people who basically have machines that would still be usable if not for the boat anchor of an OS.
But no, they're forcing people with perfectly usable machines to upgrade, and rubbing salt in the wound of people who are stuck with an entire generation of PCs that are still servicable but are basically just waiting to be tossed into the landfill because no one in their right mind is going to pay Microsoft's absurd upgrade pricing. (Unless they install linux or pirate windows).
This behaviour is so breathtakingly obnoxious that it just confirms to me that despite all the gesticulations and claims that Microsoft has "mended their ways", they've clearly not mended them at all. (Insert comparisons to abusive spouses, here) Being malicious douchebags has been firmly ingrained into Microsoft's DNA, as it's been since it's founding with Bill Gates.
Is this also why MS has been getting into open source? So they can put GWX into Linux?
To be fair, both "solutions" will create new problems. But perhaps less problematic then what Microsoft is pushing.
Microsoft, stop raping me with your updates, no means no. I know that I was 'asking for it' by running the automatic updates, but now I just want to go home, take a long crying shower, and put on some shapeless baggy Linux kernels.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
This makes NO SENSE as a business. Let alone disrespecting your consumers you're actively HARMING many of your consumers and actively fomenting HATRED for your product let alone your brand name and for what purpose?!
For better adware rates? Really? Who wants to buy ads on your OS that everyone hates?
To save some money on patches and code because you only have to maintain one code base? No one wants to buy your software now so hey, you're going to save LOTS of money on maintenance!
The only thing this points to is Microsoft is getting ready to close their ecosystem and the only way they can do that is get them all onto Windows 10 and then force all software through the windows store - which I'm sure is baked into the Windows 10 EULA.
I've had to actively fight and repair 4 friends and family members systems over the past few weeks who suddenly woke up with Windows 10 on their systems when they explicitly - EXPLICITLY CLICKED NO on the upgrade!
Now you're telling me *I* have to go back and confirm that the upgrade box I explicitly made hidden on my PCs will now be unchecked?! FU!
And it REALLY better not be something stupid like Nadella gets ONE MILLYUN shares of MS stock if he makes his Windows 10 install numbers...
The aggression with which Microsoft is trying to push people to Windows 10 makes the monthly subscription fee for the Windows service appear all the more likely.
The Worst thing you could do to "get even" and "take revenge" is keep running Windows 7. Period.
Its a testimate to your loathing for the "New Microsoft" and all the good people they fired.
Honestly? Get real. 99.9% of the people who are having Win10 shoved down their throats don't even know what Linux is, let alone would even consider switching to it as a desktop OS. I work with it daily and even I don't have Linux as a desktop OS at home by choice for a variety of reasons, and don't have it as a desktop OS at work per corporate policy.
And 98% of those people who had Win10 foisted on them don't really mind after the initial getting used to it period. One of the people I work with is one of the biggest technophobes you'd ever meet. One morning several months ago, she came in and was practically in tears after accidentally agreeing to the upgrade, and then almost lost her mind when she asked me if there was some easy way to go back to Windows 8 and I had to tell her no. A week later she's telling me how Windows 10 is just as good or perhaps even a bit better and easier to use than Windows 8 and she's glad she upgraded.
If you are comparing Windows 10 with Windows 8, that's certainly correct. Windows 8 was an abomination. The first time I had a laptop with it, doing things like typing a simple Word document was a pain. Whenever the cursor arrived at the right end of the screen, the charms bar would pop up, the cursor would disappear from the Word Window, and if I were typing while looking at the keyboard, which I sometimes do, then I wouldn't notice that what I typed didn't appear on screen due to that reason.
Yeah, Windows 7's menu is in some ways superior to Windows 10, and here, Classic Shell, which was more like lipstick on a pig in Windows 8, is actually just perfect on Windows 10. Here, you get any of the old menus - Windows 7, Aero, Classic Windows (XP), and so on. That's what I get any time I put Windows 10 on something, and I can continue to use the system like I did for Windows 7.
Yes, or install Cloud Ready ChromeOS distro as a dual boot or only boot option. Recently, several people I know complained about Windows10 and I offered this and they were very happy to have a cheap ChromeOS system since they do everything online.
What an apt description! I used to love whack-a-mole.
And cause a whole lot more problems for the majority of computer users. Which distro? How do I get a driver for my sound, network, etc. As much as I love and use Linux there is no way the majority of people can't use it without a major learning curve. It simply does not work across the board on every system. As far as it has come it still is not easy for a non-techie to get setup and going.
I've been trying out Elementary OS and it seems pretty spectacular so far. Much smother then any linux I have seen in awhile. Just thought I would mention it.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
It's just the economy's Invisible Hand pushing you toward the best product!
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I no longer trust any MS-updates! I have been hiding KB 3035583 and re-hiding it along with other questionable updates for months and trying to avoid the other telemetry updates and killing the task scheduled jobs that MS has been sneaking in. I cant apply any update with wasting a lot of time researching each KB-# in depth to see what kind of malicious payload it may be carrying.
MS has succeeded making the valid updates questionable and making harder to determine what to and accept and what to reject.
They arbitrarily change the functionality of your machine try to force it on you and then sneak it in with virus like tactics add telemetry spyware .
MS also wants to an every PC to their update-bot-net using your PC's resources processing power, disk space and band width as a bot to distribute updates to others. This when ISPs are ruthlessly starting to cap bandwidth usage usage.
What will you be talking about after the free upgrade to Windows 10 expires after July 2, 2016?
Windows 10 just went Viral
GWX is worse than a virus.
Sure, you can do that. Or you can install Linux, which will continue to push updates without trying to switch you out to Windows 10.
Switch masters from Microsoft to Google
> Which distro?
Whatever works for them. There's plenty of big ones to choose from.
> How do I get a driver for my sound, network, etc.
For sound and network, this is a pretty 2003 problem. Those work without drama. For less universal hardware you can still have to download it from a manufacturer's website, but the same is true with Windows. I haven't seen Linux fail to instantly understand graphics, sound, networking, memory, hard drives, solid state drives, or optical drives in over a decade.
> It simply does not work across the board on every system.
Neither does Windows.
Using Linux does require more effort than using Windows. But when it comes to the basics, it is absolutely solid. The bigger issue a Windows user faces is that some programs will inevitable not have Linux versions, or the Linux replacements will be a lot less functional.
But if the alternative is windows 10, lets be real here, that's some creepy nonsense.
"....Chinese news outlet Xinhua reports that plenty of users in China are unhappy about Microsoft's push to get them to mandatorily upgrade their Windows OS."
As if anyone in that entire country paid for a legit version of windows....
What? The KB 3035583 never "disappeared" It's been a recommended and selected update for months now.
https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9149111&cid=52183861
distrowatch.com
I had installed windows ten. It then messed up my 2TB harddrive. Now I reinstalled 7 and it obviously isnt eligable for whatever reason so i havnt been bothered by the windows 10 updates. Sticking with 7 as long as i ruddy can though. Then it will probably be linux.
I'll take "advertisements in the start menu tiles" for $1,000,000 Alex
If enough people in China get pissed off, the government may decide to lean on Microsoft for this. What I'm really wondering though, is why the EU hasn't come down on them like a megaton of bricks for this crap. They're usually pretty good about dropping the hammer on stupid sh*t like this.
Or maybe past insanity at this point. Lots of people still rely on software that does not yet support Windows 10 for their jobs. This is an OS for goodness sake...
I mean... there's been enough shady behavior affecting enough people, someone should have been screwed that has the means and will to sue by now.
I'd classify this kind of hijacking of the windows update mechanism a CFAA violation no matter what the license agreement says.
Of course this pops up again on a holiday weekend--probably by design.
1. You may be out of town for a few days, and come home to a forced install.
2. Non-techie guests with permission to use your computer may be visiting, and not be able to recognize/abort the forced install in time.
3. You won't be on your regular schedule of following media or Slashdot to notice the ugly recurrence in time. That's why so many unpopular policy announcements (government, corporate) are made at the beginning of the Christmas holiday. It's a classic PR trick hoping to fly under everyone's radar.
4. Who's going to double-check their hidden updates if they took care of it months ago?
Thanks a lot, Mr. Nutella.
I'm a physician and I own a small practice. I took the proactive step of hiding the GWX updates, but apparently that wasn't enough. Several of our machines updated to Windows 10 last night, and promptly crashed with the EMR software. No data was lost (I'm a backup junkie), but it delayed necessary medical care for a number of patients.
I wish Microsoft would realize that they have the potential to kill people with this. What would have happened if this had been the computers at a pharmacy and suddenly there were delays in time critical medications? What happens if the update slips through and takes down the 911 dispatchers? What about some of the surgical equipment in the OR? They all run on Windows, and they all require special drivers to interface to third party machinery which may or may not work with Windows 10.
I realize Microsoft has business plans that require force feeding upgrades. However, I have zero tolerance for policies that put lives at risk
KB3035583 is appearing as a pre-checked, IMPORTANT update on many systems I am working on in my shop. WTF??
Eventually the free upgrades to Windows 10 will stop being available and I might be stuck with Windows 7.
Of course if I do want Windows 10 (doubtful), I can always buy it and install it (it's like $100).
Or do what the vast majority of users do, buy a new computer that comes with Windows 10.
What is the fucking urgency from Microsoft to update to Windows 10?
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
When I went to hide 3035583 I found that 2952664 had been re-added to the optional updates list. I know I hid it at least twice before. Getting sick of this game of whack-a-mole.
I have a PC running Windows 7 with Media Center as my HTPC. Once a while Windows Update would download incompatible driver and cause problem to my computer. So I disabled Windows Update through the UI as well as Windows Service. I thought it would get rid of the driver problem and also the get Windows 10 crap. I was wrong. One day the Get Windows 10 notification popped up from the tray. I'm speechless.
I walked my mother through installing Mint on her laptop. Then downloaded a Windows 10 theme for it. She can't even tell the difference.
"Freedom in the USA is not the ability to do what you want. It is the ability to stop others from doing what THEY want"
It's likely that you know more about some of the technical issues than I. However, here are my ideas:
You said, "Don't automatically install Recommended updates. Only security updates."
Microsoft has shown itself, again and again, to be an extremely abusive company. (Not following standards in IE 6, for example.) The recent tricks with Windows 10 have shown that Microsoft could possibly release a "security update" that has hidden purposes.
" If you're a business then run an internal WSUS server."
Again, Microsoft could release an "update" to the server that would give Microsoft more control.
"There's a big difference between stop/break fixes and minor inconveniences."
The issue is deliberate, extensive ABUSE, not "minor inconveniences".
Managers at Microsoft, like former Microsoft CEO Monkey Boy, for example, have such limited social ability that they are not able to avoid being self-destructive. They don't see that taking control of customer's computers will eventually have a very bad result.
We have a gamer in the house, with the usual overpowered machine, running 7. 10 was being avoided, until the "x out" window that really meant "load windows 10" was hit. I always thought that was a malware trick circa 1998, but I guess it is a classic. Boom ! A stable system 7 goes blooey. If you use a netgear wifi card to get ac, you will jam up the machine and until you figure out you need to remove the netgear card, you will lose your mind. Bonus points for the fact that you lose wifi entirely. Two hours of Googling and trial and error reveal that Windows 10 and Netgear cards sometimes don't get along. So, I lose two hours and a card that under 7 had a rock steady 300 mbs connection, for a program that loaded under false pretenses for a user who tried his best to avoid.
That happens anyway, with or without updates.
Win-Tel is dying off, desktops are vanishing - replaced by iPads & Smart Phones...
For a few hundred bucks you can have a phone or tablet that does more than a desktop PC & you can take it with you.
What the Windows 10 adoption numbers do not show are the vast amount of people dumping PCs all together for mobile devices... no updates ever again.
MS spyware on Windows 10 is data harvesting just like google - it is banned in several secure environments because of those risks.
They want Windows 7 in the consumer/home market dead. It doesn't work with their new business strategys. It needs to be gone ASAP as far as Microsoft is concerned.
Grandma isn't running crazy custom VB6 applications that can't be modernized and must work. She is, however, an inexperienced computer user...
You know what's interesting? The SJWs who insist "we must teach all girls to code!" haven't taken offense at your Grandma stereotype.
It's a true stereotype, but truth usually doesn't stop SJWs from taking offense at things.
I may want it in a few years, but at the moment, no. Is there a way to say yes I want it for nothing, but I'll install it when I want to.
When you activate the win10 installation, Microsoft will log your motherboard's serial number. After that you can do a fresh install of 10 and MS will recognize the mobo and let you activate it again. I did this for a computer I just built so I can try other options (7, Linux Mint) and still be able to use 10 if I want.
I've got a call that this shitware has gotten itself installed on a computer used by a small business that I support, without intervention with the one guy that uses the machine. I've lost remote access to the machine, he's lost access to printers and the graphics card is back at VGA levels. So it's going to be taken back in, wiped, and given a pikey version of Server 2k8 - which is the one version of Windows that doesn't pester the fuck out of you for this win10 'upgrade'.
The clueless, cretinous, wank-biscuits who thought this deployment was a good idea should be dragged out into the nearest car park by their teeth and given a thorough shoeing.
F_T
Since I had Windows 7 on my computer I have never used the Microsoft update service. I disabled it immediately. My computer has never been compromised, I have never had a virus, it is not hacked.
It certainly seems very appropriate to have a major class action suit files against both Microsoft and the CEO Nadella. Who the F!@& do thy think they are?! I demand my rights back, and your hands 'cuffed' from ever doing anything like this again! People of earth: WAKE UP! Boycott Microsoft! Discard their products until amend are made!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.