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Massive Backlash Building Over Windows 10 Upgrades (fortune.com)
Some Windows users are now disabling critical updates on their systems rather than face the prospect of mistakenly upgrading to Windows 10. An anonymous reader writes:
"By pushing it on users in such a heavy-handed way, Microsoft is encouraging users who have very valid reasons to stick with Windows 7/8 to perform actions that leave their machines open to attack," writes PC World's senior editor. He adds that "Over the past week, I've received more contact from readers about this issue than I have about everything else I've written over the rest of my career combined."
Now even China's official news agency is reporting that users are angry about stealthy Windows 10 upgrades, saying over 1.2 million complaints appeared on one microblogging site. It quotes a legal advisor with the Internet Society of China, who says Microsoft "has abused its dominant market position and broken the market order for fair play," saying that lawsuits would be justified over Microsoft's action. "Yang Shuo, a worker at a Beijing-based public relations company, told Xinhua that the sudden update interrupted his drafting of a business plan and led to a meeting cancellation for a deal worth 3 million yuan ($457,735). 'Just because I didn't see the pop-up reminder does not mean I agreed.'"
In a possibly-unrelated development, the Chinese military plans to send nuclear submarines into the Pacific Ocean.
Now even China's official news agency is reporting that users are angry about stealthy Windows 10 upgrades, saying over 1.2 million complaints appeared on one microblogging site. It quotes a legal advisor with the Internet Society of China, who says Microsoft "has abused its dominant market position and broken the market order for fair play," saying that lawsuits would be justified over Microsoft's action. "Yang Shuo, a worker at a Beijing-based public relations company, told Xinhua that the sudden update interrupted his drafting of a business plan and led to a meeting cancellation for a deal worth 3 million yuan ($457,735). 'Just because I didn't see the pop-up reminder does not mean I agreed.'"
In a possibly-unrelated development, the Chinese military plans to send nuclear submarines into the Pacific Ocean.
First off, your off topic. This article has nothing do with Apple.
It wrong with Apple does it and it's wrong when Microsoft does it. That said, what Microsoft is doing would be the equivalent of installing the update when you hit no/cancel in your iPad.
SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
Create a blank .reg file and put this in it
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx]
"DisableGwx"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
"DisableOSUpgrade"=dword:00000001
Then run it, alternative manually add those keys to the registry yourself.
Yes, I know this isn't exactly user friendly and NO it shouldn't be necessary but it works all the time, every time.
It's even documented on the Microsoft website, go on have a look : https://support.microsoft.com/...
Why this is STILL not common knowledge I don't know. All you get from everyone is bitching how "Microsoft shouldn't be doing this" and "how dare they have the gall to do this". If EVERYONE on Slashdot put some effort in to spreading the word about this pretty simple fix, then a LOT of people would not end up with Windows 10 when they don't want it.
Hey maybe Slashdot could run a quick piece on it? Perhaps spread the word to some mainstream press with a link to a reg file hosted by someone trustworthy.
Alternatively let's all just keep rehashing the same fucking discussions about how "update KBwhatever" keeps coming back when hiding that has never been they way to fix this problem.
All my 7 installs are Enterprise, which are "not eligible" for this "free upgrade" lol.
Wow! Many of the comments above have somewhat justified or accepted Microsoft's abuse.
1) Can we have a court case to force Microsoft to sell everyone the Enterprise version of Windows 10?
2) On Windows 7 and 8, turn off automatic updates and use Autopatcher. Unfortunately, Autopatcher has not begun supporting Windows 10. We need independent control over Windows operating system updates. How can we achieve that?
3) Don't let Windows connect to the internet. Use 2 separate networks. There would need to be some way for the separate networks to communicate. Internet access could be done using separate computers running Linux.
Microsoft has a long, long history of releasing defective code and fixing it later. After fixing 2,722 vulnerabilities and other defects, Microsoft declared Microsoft Windows XP "end of life". After fixing almost 3,000 defects, Microsoft declared Windows XP was too vulnerable to use.
We still have 17 computers running Windows XP with a software firewall. We've had no problems. Everyone is a limited rights user.
4) We need international support for a Windows-compatible operating system, like ReactOS.
5) Maybe the U.S. government now only helps the rich gets richer. The European government could bring a huge court case against Microsoft.
I guess you werent around when Microsoft was convicted of being an abusive monopoly....
Good-bye
Hello. I'm a guy who makes purchasing decisions for a business. We're not moving to Windows 10. We are looking at alternatives and about to spend real money on some of them.
You have no evidence for your claims.
He does now.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
A few days ago I fixed a business computer. It kept nagging and finally installed Windows 10.
The result?
1. The upgrade finally killed the (very old) hard drive in the PC. Errors everywhere, had to be replaced.
2. The old office suite no longer worked.
3. The antivirus messed up.
4. Somehow during the process the email screwed up and they lost some of it (not repairable.)
5. The custom order entry system he used no longer ran.
So a new hard drive was installed and Win7 put back on. Everything was reinstalled, and I put in the GPO policies and registry tweaks that stop W10 for now... until Microsoft decides to change it again.
When I told them they'd have to probably spend $700+ replacing their old software (and still risk the order entry system not working) they were very mad at Microsoft. This was their only functioning workstation and so its lost definitely affected business operations. The computer store was backlogged over a week (!) fixing issues like this one so they called me.
I hate having to say it, as I've been building and supporting Windows units since Win 3.1 but for my business customers? We're looking into Chromebooks with the Windows 7 units being kept for legacy applications and to run hardware that won't work anywhere else, just like I have several XP units out there running legacy devices like CNCs.
The reasons why are simple...they are cheap, easy to manage, and for basic office work? They have more than enough power to do the job. You can manage everything locally with Google for business and if one dies who cares? Just whip out another one from the back and they are right back where they were in a couple minutes like nothing ever happened.
MSFT is really really fucking themselves HARD with Windows 10 as they forgot the golden rule...silly rabbit, Windows is for business. They forgot those millions of small businesses are their bread and butter and by keeping control of all their phone home shit strictly for Enterprise which most of them cannot afford? They just made the competition look a HELL of a lot more attractive. Even my gamer customers are asking me about alternative like Linux and SteamOS and just keeping a Windows partition for the games that won't run as even they really don't like Windows 10. its buggy as hell, as likely to crap itself on update as a bleeding edge Linux distro, has lousy backwards compatibility and piss poor driver support.....its just not a good OS.
My guess is by 2020 Nutella will go the way of Ballmernator, they only question is whether there will be enough customers left who give a shit for the next guy to try to save the company. What they SHOULD have done is backported both DX12 and the Windows Store and made selling add-on services and features a big money maker, with their massive server network and bandwidth they could get ahead of the curve with services like Internet TV and selling online game hosting services but they went from being a bad Apple rip-off with Ballmer to being a bad Google rip-off with extra spying and Bing! with Nutella...sigh. How they went from making something as good as win 7 to such a giant fuckup of a company is beyond me.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
On Thursday I turned off "get recommended updates like you get important updates" (or whatever the exact text it) on my wife's computer. I *just* got a call from her telling me that her computer started installing Windows 10. I changed the setting specifically to avoid the 10 install. I double checked that my desired setting was in place after a reboot. So, no, turning off recommended updates doesn't always avoid 10.
capthca: outrages
This. Like the Hitler thing, there will always be someone who flippantly posts "just don't use windows" with a misguided air of superiority.
So, in a futile attempt to put this to rest: if it were that easy, that's what people would do.
But it isn't, and Microsoft knows it, and that's why they're doing what they're doing.
If you don't rely on software that requires Windows, happy for you. If you got the spare time and the inclination, there's Linux or BSD; otherwise, Macs have become pretty damn bullet-proof turnkey solutions for getting the essentials taken care of and then some. Throw in a Playstation 4, and you've got games covered, too.
But for the rest of us, it's a huge shit sandwich, and we're all gotta have to take a bite.
Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...