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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.
nobody attacks apple for agressivly pushing their updates. On my ipad almost every time i pick it up there is a screen about an IOS update. i say 'sod off' and it takes me to my lock screen code page. unless you are paying attention its not clear that putting in your code will enable it to do the update, you have to press another button to stop this madness.
and on my machine at work - continunal messages sat in the top right over updates, with no other option than 'remind me tomorrow'- how about 'remind me never?'
they are just waiting for you to accidentally click the wrong thing. or just click yes to stop getting in your way.
its double standards. but most mac/ios users drinkt he kool aid and never hit this 'problem'
EU should act over forced upgrades via deception
Just like they did with IE bundling, and now Google bundling.
EU should take Microsoft to the cleaners for forcing W10 underhand
Slashdot editors have been trained to cross-promote in every story rather than actually contributing their own thoughts.
"Oh, and HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate /v "DisableOSUpgrade" /t REG_DWORD /d 0x1"
Silly rabbit, the next Windows critical security update will fix that registry error you just created.
"hipster"
"SJW"
You have no idea what those terms actually mean, do you? You just heard them used in negative contexts and know people don't like being called them and, without any further research, decided to apply them to everything you don't like.
The businesspeople complaining about this forced intrusion on their workflows are neither hipsters, nor are they SJWs.
I'd like to see a nasty class action lawsuit against Microsoft in this issue. Not that I like lawyers but this is a very damaging and deceptive action on Microsoft's behalf.
...this had been opt-in instead of try-repeatedly-to-opt-out, Microsoft might been able to gain lots of positive press for offering a newer, allegedly safer, somewhat spying OS for free.
As is, with it being rammed down people's downlinks with little or no regards for the users wishes or data-caps, the angry backlash should been predicted and expected.
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
Microsoft is assaulting its user base with features and upgrades that they don't want.
hounding, harassing, misleading, and tricking users into doing things they don't want to do is a great way to lose even more market share and foster an even more toxic reputation that Microsoft is unscrupulous and an increasing unnecessary nuisance.
it is hilarious to me that there are actually people here who will defend MS and even blame users for their OS being upgraded against their intentions.
when you have to watch your own system like a hawk and protect it from multiple vectors of attack ... from the company that MADE that OS ... man, it is time to re-evaluate whether it's worth the hassle at all. amazingly, Microsoft has managed to plant that seed of thought not in rabble-rousing Linux faithful, but average joes and janes who have no desire to become security experts and update ninjas just to keep their machine from changing its operating system on them. good job MS, alienating one of your most faithful demographics.
i could live a little longer in this prison
That's about how we feel as well. We've never allowed updates to install fully automatically, but our default policy used to be that we'd normally install recommended updates unless we had a good reason not to. Not long after the Windows 10 mess started, that policy changed to install-nothing by default, and we just have someone review the security updates each patch day and make a list of any that it seems (a) we might actually need and (b) don't come bundled with anything else we don't want.
The thing that makes me nervous, even though it's quite rational as a business decision, is that until we've had time to vet, we now don't install anything. Our assumption is that the risk of some new security vulnerability that isn't patched for a day or two and also gets past all our other precautions is lower than the risk of Microsoft shafting us with an update we really don't want.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
"Win 10 will dominate the Windows market"
The real question is how much will be left with such a large market of people who generally and acutely hate your product? Every miss-step MS does (and this is certainly a big one) costs MS marketshare, and given the enemic PC landscape, that's the last thing MS needs. This will just usher people toward alternatives faster.
Ask yourself this: If given the option would you jump into bed with Redhat or Oracle. I'd choose Redhat because Oracle's got a history of being slimy money grubbing assholes. Repuation matters, and there's little these days compelling the common man from chosing them over any of their numerous competitors.
Bye!
spead the news: linux is better, switch today!
now that's wealth.
Win 10 will dominate the Windows market, the world will move on, and Microsoft will consider defending and possibly losing a massive class action suit as merely a cost of business.
Presumably that is their strategy. I'm not sure it's looking so good for them so far, though. We're already most of the way through the one year period for an update to Windows 10, they have been literally giving it away and actively trying to trick people into migrating, and Windows 7 still has a much larger market share. Meanwhile, Microsoft's reputation and credibility are in tatters, probably more so with the geek and professional community than anyone else.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
...it is hilarious to me that there are actually people here who will defend MS...
It wouldn't surprise me if there were paid shills defending Microsoft on the boards. Probably wouldn't be the first time Microsoft did something like that.
But what's the point now?
I suppose it depends on how desperate they get as the deadline nears, particularly if they don't see a huge surge in conversions at the last minute. Even when the Get Windows 10 prompts started, I wouldn't have expected Microsoft to turn an update that installs them back on after a user actively chose to hide it. Even after they'd done that, I wouldn't have expected them to bundle promotional material into an unrelated security update. Today I don't honestly know what lines they wouldn't cross any more or if there even are any.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
> I feel a bit conflicted on this one. ... But on the other hand Windows 10 has some stuff in it I really like.
Suppose for a moment that Windows 10 was awesome, as good as sex. And Microsoft is forcing it upon people who don't want it. How do you feel about forcing sex on someone who doesn't it? Still conflicted?
In my case, I have expensive hardware which is controlled by a Windows application, an application which doesn't run in Windows 10. Without Windows 7 or earlier, I have to throw out several thousand dollars worth of equipment.
The title is wrong. It should read :
"Not enough Backlash Building Over Windows 10 Upgrades "
aaaaaaa
Well it started out as an Optional Update.
Then it became a Recommended Update.
Next it will become a Critical Update.
And finally an Unavoidable Update.
That alone isn't enough. They needed to be fined enough that they get the message. There's no way their legal department didn't inform the higher ups that this kind of abuse would leave them open to liability, but the past has proved to them any resulting fines are a minor fraction of the money they made doing it. The only way to actually discourage this kind of behavior is to make the fine so severe that their shareholders take notice. I'm thinking a whole quarters profit should get that message across, which Google tells me was $5bn in Q1 2015.
That's interesting. Thanks for making a cogent reply to this question I've been asking since the whole business started.
Did you doubt the veracity of all the people who have said they "upgraded" without their input?
Or otherwise trick you into it, in some pretty devious ways, like my blank Window that stays on top and won't go away. In the end, I have to click in the window - anywhere will do - and quickly kill the next window that pops up, because it is starting the upgrade process.. In the end, it only make sense - a company that downloads an operating system on your computer without your permission probably doesn't feel that they need your permission to do anything.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I don't know what you're doing about updates you don't want, but Microsoft has "revised" the update in question at least ten times so far. Each time an update gets "revised", the hidden status goes away. If you simply "hide" updates that you don't want and leave Windows Update on automatic, one day you will wake up to Windows 10. You probably aren't doing this, but a lot of people are.
I just gave up and turned Windows Update completely to manual-only and stopped bothering with it. But I normally don't use Windows for anything but playing a limited number of online games, and I certainly don't use IE/Edge (web browsing is done on a laptop running OS X), so my attack surface is a bit smaller than average.
In contrast, I've seen an "Upgrade to El Capitan!" window only two or three times, and I have at least three Macs that I work with regularly. I've tried to figure out how to stop it, but it's never happened enough for me to learn anything about it. It never tries to force the update (I'm sticking with 10.9 for now), and apparently it actually respects your decision not to upgrade, instead of repeatedly nagging, downloading 6+ gigabytes without permission, and then forcing the install. Maybe Microsoft could learn something from that.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
More insightful than your comment to be honest. I was pointing out that the word shill gets thrown around a lot, especially in windows threads.
The Microsoft paid shill has escaped the once narrow definition, and now represents anyone who makes over the top statements in support of Windows or any OS or device. Shill might be one of the kindest words to use for these jokers. The "every problem is your fault" folks, the misinformers, the deny that Microsoft is doing what they say they are doing folks, the blatant liars. Many doing it all for free, and approaching troll and axe grinder status
And yes - this does happen a lot in Windows threads. There is a reason for that. Shill fits pretty well.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
1. Isn't that kind of expensive?
Yes and no. It's annoying that someone has to spend an hour or two each month looking up the new security updates to make sure they're not doing questionable things before installing. It's a lot less expensive than having our systems compromised, whether by updating to Windows 10, installing telemetry that potentially raises regulatory or contractual compliance issues, etc.
2. if you can't trust your supplier not to try to trick you why are you using that supplier?
When we bought these systems, we did trust Microsoft. Now we don't, because their behaviour is no longer trustworthy. We aren't currently buying any new Windows-based systems. We are currently experimenting with other platforms. There's nothing inconsistent here, just a supplier that unfortunately changed for the worse over time.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.