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Microsoft Removes the 'X' From Windows 10 Update Leaving No Way Out (theregister.co.uk)
simpz writes: The Register reports that Microsoft has changed the Windows 10 update dialog and no longer shows the "X" close button. They say once agreed to there is no obvious back-out method and it is now out of step with Microsoft's own documentation on this. They have a screenshot of this. As noted above, the latest move is out of step with Microsoft's Knowledge Base documentation, which says you can re-schedule your upgrade.
Alllllll these workarounds. Man, wouldn't it be great if your OS wasn't overtly hostile?
Just reject the license upon reboot. Previous version restored!
Does it bother anyone else that effectively you have to stop getting ALL important security, performance, and stability updates for Windows 7 just to avoid the debacle that is Microshit's managing of Windows 10's rollout? I have absolutely no intention of EVER installing Windows 10, or for that matter any future version of windows. After Windows 7 becomes too old to do what I need, I'm moving to linux full time. How can this behavior be legal, or even acceptable? Can this be reported to the better business bureau or something? I just feel like there is nothing I can do except accept the fact that I have to have a less secure operating system just to avoid M$'s nagging bullshit and them possibly messing up my whole computer by installing an OS I don't want.
I can't be the only one this exacerbated, can I?!
My mother just blew through her data cap on her Verizon hotspot yesterday. I could't figure out how she could have used 6.5 GB in one day, then I realized Microsoft had downloaded Windows 10 to her machine. She really needs to learn a new UI at this point in her life, she's 85 and half blind. Now she also gets to pay data overages from her $500 a month of social security that she's living on. Actually, I will be paying it, and will also have to drive and hour and half to go un-fuck her machine. These people really are cruel and heartless bastards.
This is an F'ing nightmare for me. I provide computer support for my extended family, many of which are up in years and are finally happy with their computer and the programs they use. Things have been good for 3+ years or so and stable, as I purchased all their computers for them with pre-installed Windows 7 Home Premium. Now I get called about this "popup" on their screen that they don't know what to do with. Initially I told them to just close the window, then later (I missed the change) one of the computers started to upgrade to Windows 10. I don't have the time or honestly the patience to teach nearly a dozen family members in different states how to use the new Windows, research and pay for upgrades for any app they use that won't work in Win 10 and in general try to figure out how to answer the question "the mail doesn't work anymore". For this same reason please don't suggest that I "switch to Linux" because that doesn't solve my problem it only exasperates it. I've fallen back and snail-mailed all of them USB sticks with the GWX control panel software and a 15 page picture-filled document on how to install the app that is on the thumb drive. Microsoft is unforgivable for this heavy-handed attempt at assimilating the masses to meet their ad-based revenue goals. Oh and some of them have 3 or 4 year old Samsung smart TVs.... =P
You can do what I did, go to Frys with a wheelbarrow full of cash and buy a Mac. I'm an embedded firmware developer and often need windows based compilers for microcontroller development. (sorry, not everything iCPU is supported by open source compilers). After I was forced to work under parallels for windows work last year I have never looked back. Even windows is more stable under osx. It is hard to blame microsoft developers for all the instabilities as every peripheral maker drops their own conflicting and half baked drivers into the mix. I've been living with dos and windows since it was the next new thing and I'm glad to see the back side of windows machines. Only thing that still drives me nuts is the disjoint copy and paste meta keys when moving test between windows and parallels/windows - it just hurts my brains and muscle memory.
Download a bootloader and disable automatic updates in services, as well as the windows installer, activating that only when you want to install an app.
Then install GWX Control panel as an extra measure of removing yourself from the collective.
Also find your scheduled tasks folder and delete everything there. There's hooks in that folder that will start certain upgrade paths for you.
Be sure to have a good Antivirus, and be ready to never receive another update unless you download it and apply it manually.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
The issue here is that MS is acting like they are confused over what the user wants.
They want to assert that the user has given permission, and that this is the end of the story. Users assert that they have said NO to the installer many times, and have even turned on the friendly registry flags to tell MS that they dont want the upgrade.
MS has ignored these, and done upgrades anyway, getting more and more forceful and obstinate.
So, force them to do something clearly malwarelike:
When you first set up your new Win7 deployment, proactively create a folder named GWX under %systemroot%.
Good. Now, set an ACL on it. (you can do this from the command line on versions of windows that neuter the GUI, "because end users dont need that.") Put an express DENY (no, not just uncheck allow, like you were trained to. no, outright deny. we really mean it.) on write, read, and execute, with propogation to child objects enabled, and do this for TrustedInstaller and System users, as well as the administrators group, and the builtin admin user. Only allow redaction of the change from your own, personal administration account that needs your password to be used.
Turn on automatic updates.
Watch as the GWX "update" fails to install, each and every time microsoft tries to install it.
Give MS the finger, and laugh.
It is even a thinner line between what M$ is doing and what conspiracy theorists could make of M$'s seemingly desperate bid to force as many users as possible onto Windows 10, where M$ has total control and can change anything they want at each and every compulsory upgrade. Shut down all windows computers during a specific planetary event, silence all political talk on issues that M$'s board approves but the majority rejects, shut down computers during critical election moments, silence all protest et al. This stuff is getting seriously out of hand and pretty wacked, it is getting very hard to understand what M$ is doing and why governments are accepting it, this is getting to be pretty wacked stuff, insane behaviour by a corporation. It already has to be accepted that prying into everything small and medium business is doing and what the employees of major businesses are doing, gives them a powerful ability to collude with the banksters in a massive insider trading scheme to generate billions, that is what you do with the data they are analysing and the very reason why it should be banned outright.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Obviously the answer is revenue. There are lots of savings to be had. It's much cheaper to maintain one OS rather them multiple versions of the OS. (BTW, expect big layoffs at MS real soon now. Anyone who mostly works on OS code that is not tied to 10 should have their resume all polished up. Blood will flow in Redmond.)
But that part is not enough to explain the ridiculous methods that are being used. When the only way to insure that 10 is not installed on your computer is to never attach it to the internet, there is something else going on. And it must be revenue driven.
The likely answer is that Microsoft is planning on going to a de facto subscription model. Users will have to pay every year to keep their copy of the OS working. Same for Office, Excel, etc. Individual users will end up paying the full purchase cost every year for each piece of software, or maybe half the full price. Of course there will be "bundled" discounts like the phone companies offer, but that won't do much for your elderly relatives. And there will be student rates, but the vast majority will be paying through the nose.
Microsoft lost the revenue war to Apple.They missed out on the iPhone and iWatch. They were late to the cloud as well. Android has driven all the nails into the coffin for the phone/tablet market, which is where the growth will be.Their only play is to fully exploit their monopolist power and embrace extortionist capitalism.
The EU will scream like a stuck pig, but MS already has a strategy in place to deal with them. It will be delay by a series of holding actions, and then eventually have data centers in Europe to satisfy privacy conditions. They might even agree to pay more taxes, which will be less painful given the profits they rake in.
The big growth will be in China, Russia and India, where MS will help the government track everyone. They will do for these countries what the NSA has done to the US. Every computer will be a full time spy. Local data centers with 100% access to the contents of all computers. It is possible that the US will take advantage of this as well. Not that anyone will ever hear about it.
Why is Snark Required?
Insightful? Really mods? Riddle me this.....how many of you know someone who actually went out and bought Windows because they LIKED it...anyone? Buelller? People buy Windows and PCs that come with Windows because they have hundreds to thousands of dollars worth of software that only run on that OS, its called the network effect and its the reason why despite Linux being free forever there are more people that pirate Windows than use Linux as a desktop.
So you might as well have typed "replace your PC with a potato! Up with vegetables!" for all the good Linux would do the majority as without the software the bought the PC to run in the first place you are offering them nothing of value and in fact are offering them nothing but frustration as they try to get their software to work or find an ersatz on Linux, which just doesn't fulfill their needs. Those few people that ONLY use a web browser, which so many here think is the majority? Would be better off with a tablet as they wouldn't have to deal with drivers or patches yet Windows PCs still number in the hundreds of millions.
This is why MSFT can get away with putting out an OS as shitty as Windows 10 and be as douchey as they want trying to shove it down people's throats because the majority have no choice but use Windows and until you can get the majority of Windows software vendors to port their proprietary software to your platform (which will happen when hell freezes over, with Linux being so openly hostile to proprietary they'll stay where they are at) its simply gonna provide no value to the vast majority of PC users, no matter how crap the MSFT alternative is. You want proof? Look at history...WinME was crap...Linux gained nothing. Vista was crap...Linux gained nothing. Windows 8 was a shitty smartphone OS designed by hipsters...Linux gained nothing. 8.1 was slightly less crap but was still shitty...you know where this is going.
More than half the MSFT OSes released the past decade has been deep fried dogshit while Linux has gotten easier to install and run than ever....and still Linux gained less than the margin for error. The reason why that is is beyond simple, its because people do not buy OSes, they buy programs and then choose an OS that will run those programs. And as long as those billions of dollars of proprietary software doesn't run on your OS? MSFT can do what it wants and the majority will stay right where they are at. This is why I predict MSFT will keep extending the "free period" of Windows 10 and keep getting more malware like in their pushing it and...nothing will happen, nobody will leave, and Win 10 will become the majority OS on the desktop just as MSFT wants. The few geeks that actually care about things like privacy and spying will have already run GWX or Never10 and will not be affected...well until the majority of hardware no longer has Windows 7 drivers, then even they will have no choice but get on Win 10, no matter how much we hate it.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
So you might as well have typed "replace your PC with a potato!
Dude, you went full potato there. Never go full potato.
I remember a time when VHS video was the equivalent of Windows, and people made the same arguments as you do.
How's that work out? Or are you going to claim that Windows is going to continue as you describe forever?
In the end, who the potato cares? I use Linux and OSX because they work better for me, not because of popularity. Your version of reality has Kim Kardashian as the most beautiful woman ever placed on earth. She rules on Facebook, so anyone liking any other woman is stupid, right?
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.