Slashdot Mirror
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!
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.
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
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.