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Microsoft Announces 'Cumulative' Updates Will Become Mandatory For Windows 7 and 8.1 (microsoft.com)
Microsoft's now changing the way updates are delivered for Windows 7 and 8.1. Slashdot reader JustAnotherOldGuy writes: Microsoft's Senior Product Marketing Manager Nathan Mercer just announced that, "From October 2016 onwards, Windows will release a single Monthly Rollup that addresses both security issues and reliability issues in a single update... Each month's rollup will supersede the previous month's rollup, so there will always be only one update required for your Windows PCs to get current."
What this means is that individual patches will no longer be available after October 2016, and Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will now only have two choices: stop updating completely and leave your computers vulnerable to security holes, or accept everything single thing Microsoft sends you whether you want it or not.
Microsoft says their new approach "increases Windows operating system reliability, by eliminating update fragmentation and providing more proactive patches for known issues." They added that "Several update types aren't included in a rollup, such as those for Servicing Stack and Adobe Flash," and that "the .NET Framework will also follow the Monthly Rollup model." According to Microsoft's blog post, they'll also be releasing a monthly "security-only" update, but again, "individual patches will no longer be available".
What this means is that individual patches will no longer be available after October 2016, and Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will now only have two choices: stop updating completely and leave your computers vulnerable to security holes, or accept everything single thing Microsoft sends you whether you want it or not.
Microsoft says their new approach "increases Windows operating system reliability, by eliminating update fragmentation and providing more proactive patches for known issues." They added that "Several update types aren't included in a rollup, such as those for Servicing Stack and Adobe Flash," and that "the .NET Framework will also follow the Monthly Rollup model." According to Microsoft's blog post, they'll also be releasing a monthly "security-only" update, but again, "individual patches will no longer be available".
easy. thanks.
I guess they really didn't like people removing telemetry KB updates.
Next update upgrades to Microsoft (C) (R) (TM) Windows (C) (R) (TM) 10 (C) (R) (TM) Home (C) (R) (TM) Edition (C) (R) (TM). Anonymous user discloses zero-day vulnerability affecting all Windows 7/8 systems that gives the attacker root if you plug the computer in or take it out of a Faraday cage.
its users at this point. "What're you gonna do? Play Battlefield 1 on Linux?"
So the two choices are:
> Get every update and let us collect data on everything you do, Citizen.
or
> Stop updating completely.
Well, I think I will be pretty safe with Firefox + Adblock.
Microsoft has decided they own your computer, so (&*#^%$ em...
Been using Windows desktop since 3.1, mostly for work and gaming, helped move the games industry off DOS4GW to Windows a long time ago. And this sort of crap has moved me from Win 10 to dual boot Win10/Linux Mint, soon to remove the Win10 partition. I've moved almost my work onto Mint, only use Win10 when I have to run a Windows app, and the few left there I'll be exploring Wine or relocating into a Win10 VM. Steam provided great Linux versions of enough of my games I no longer need Windows, and my job is moving from C++ on Windows + Linux to JS on Azure & AWS, so no longer need Windows desktop for anything bur work corporate apps and have throwaway laptop for that. Good riddance.
Will be helping all interested friends make the same transition.
That seems to be what they are saying - that none of their users are smart enough to pick and choose which updates they want, and that they are the only ones capable of deciding which updates should be installed. Just wait until they screw up an update and cripple a large portion of their user base - or subject their user base to significant new security vulnerabilities in the process of trying to fix an existing vulnerability. I find it really hard to believe that their testing process is comprehensive enough to cover all hardware and software configurations, and I think that they lose a lot when they disallow users to selectively install (or roll-back) updatess.
Looks like we can expect typhoon Shitstorm October 12, 2016
Grab your pop-corn, this is going to be epic!
...just what anyone paying attention could expect from this company. forced updates, telemetry, poor quality updates, all now packaged in big bundles so you can't separate the crap from the possibly useful. They need to be sure you get what ever they want jammed down your throat. So what if one part of the update breaks your system or contains crap you don't want, now you get it no matter what.
.
I quit doing updates ages ago, they just can't be trusted from that source. Which is really worse, untrustworthy updates or no updates at all? I settle for other means of protecting my MS system and when those don't work any more I guess I'll be a full time BSD & PCLOS user... you know, systems you actually have control over.
Great, now users can't block telemetry and other unwanted updates without disabling updates altogether.
Stop using Windows.
This is just the kick in the pants I needed to repave the last of my non-MS computers and take them to a non-MS platform. Thanks, Satya!
People bought Windows 7/8/8.1 with certain expectations, including the ability to opt out of a given update.
Having a monthly roll-up is generally a good idea for most customers, at least in those months with no "bad patches" (grrr). After all, that's how Apple has been doing things for its iOS and MacOS (formerly MacOXS) updates for years. If I recall, that's how they handled updates for the original MacOS (1980s-1990s) as well, except that it wasn't on a monthly cycle.
However, to suddenly change the rules mid-stream is bad PR when it comes to business customers.
At the very least, they should have a registry-key or group-policy that you can put in to "go back to doing things the old way," at least for "Enterprise," "Pro," and "Ultimate" editions.
Oh, to make things worse, they didn't announce this until AFTER the free Windows 10 upgrade period is over. Users who kept Windows 7/8/8.1 specifically so they could manage updates individually are going to be calling "foul" over this.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
As a computer tech that uses Linux almost exclusively I've also serviced Windows systems for family and friends.
Here's two questions for the bright guys at MS
#1 What if I install a brand new copy of Win7 (either because of a wipe and reinstall, or brand new install) I can't get updates at all because it won't have the current update?
#2 Can you put, on paper, that your once a month update will not totally bork the windows system it's used on, and if I have to reinstall it, do I have to accept this bad update /again/ or else not have any updates at all?
Tell me, MS. Do you all have a walled community in which you test your OS to see if it'd work well enough there, then dump your buggy, insecure OS onto the masses? For you must if you think this is a good idea.
Personality I won't care. If our one office system can't upgrade. I'll leave it unpatched until you come back to the /real world/ It doesn't matter if Windows is patched anyway. This year I had to clean out systems 30 times because of malware. I'll stick with linux, thank you. I've had only one malware attack since 1998 after I moved away from the train-wreck called Windows 98 and linux runs an another office.
I am a developer. I have a Windows 7 install inside a virtual machine to do that development work. If they think they are going to push crap I don't want onto my computer they are just nuts. I have already relegated them to a virtual machine. The next and only step is for me to discontinue all Windows dev work and move solely to Linux. I think the only people they want running Windows is the ones who have no clue how to use a computer.
I have no complaints, my computers work flawlessly.
I look over at the Windows 10 folks, and feel a bit of pity and a bit of indirect embarrassment. But only for a second or two - then I get back to my work. Because that's what my PCs are for.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
I've been a Msft user since the earliest versions of MS-DOS, which means that I've put up with a lot of crap but kept on as things slowly improved. I have been burned by a number of updates over the years, so I install them manually after checking them out one by one. It's a pain, and some destructive stuff has slipped through from time to time, but I could always uninstall or fall back to a restore point if necessary. It would be nice if I could just trust Msft not to screw up my machine, but sadly, they haven't earned that trust. The choices are rather grim, as I don't want to forego security updates. I'm hoping there will be a large enough outcry that they back off before I have to move to another platform.
Now that they've ended the 'free' upgrade they need to start adding all those patches that slow Win7 down and introduce all the extra dialog annoyances like they did with XP.
we have certain patches that cause issues on our systems and others that are fine?
Even if patches are all installed as a single block, there's going to be problems if users aren't remove individual KBs as needed.
Microsoft Update Catalog about time it's no longer IE only.
Microsoft wants to make using older versions of Windows as annoying as possible for IT departments, to try to push us to move to Windows 10.
Corporate IT departments tend to be the biggest holdouts for moving to new versions of Windows. If a business is running fine on Windows 7, there is ZERO reason beyond security updates to move to Windows 10. Now they're giving us an artificial reason: If a rolled up update breaks something, we have to roll back the ENTIRE batch. Even any included security updates.
Microsoft wants their licensing revenue, and they want fewer versions of Windows to support. This is their play.
Microsoft says their new approach "increases Windows operating system's ability to send telemetry data by pushing such functionality even on those users who up to now were able to avoid them by not installing the corresponding patches."
FTFY
Does anyone know if there's a site out there that lists all of the KBs required to bring a bog-standard fresh Windows 7 install up to "Current As Of August 2016" minus the telemetry and GWX updates? I'd like to prepare for this change by downloading ALL of the necessary updates as offline installers, and keeping them archived locally. So that going forward, I can reinstall Windows 7 and patch it up to "Current As Of August 2016" levels.
Alternately if there's a Windows 7 Ultimate image with all of this shit slipstreamed, that would be even better. My image is from 2013 from Digital River.
I bet there's a way to get the updates you critically need w/o the rollups for subscribers, if not... MS is setting their asshole on fire preemptively.
I really wonder if this would go well with major corporations since they usually pick only individual updates and exclude some that may cause interference with other systems.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
With the number of absolutely fucking BROKEN updates that brick machines that have been pushed down the pipes, this is just going to send machines into a fucking nightmarish hell of instability.
From when they announced cumulative updates:
But I don't see Microsoft going back to redo a patching system they've thrown out in Win10 to do us a favor, it seems far more likely they want to bundle it all from security patching to ads to telemetry to nagware.
Still hoping there will be separate KBs that you can install/uninstall for corporate/expert users and that the cumulative update is just what they push on the update site but since they've become plain evil lately it's hard to say.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Exactly. This is just another way to get their spyware/malware onto Windows 7 and 8 computers! Glad I am totally M$ and Windows free now!!
For some reason Anti-Virus vendors have not marked this service as Malware yet. I have a sneaking suspicion they are taking bribes from Microsoft for this malware behavior. Any other entity, and it would be classified as malware.
Microsoft needs to keep its assets secure. The integrity of the collected telemetry and marketing data is paramount. BY Microsoft retaking control of its computers, secure data can be collected from users of Microsoft's computers.
Microsoft has every right to lock down and control its hardware. People have had far too much control over Microsoft equipment.
This broken company with its broken software can't do anything right.
will be jumping of joy with this.
Lets break all our business applications due to an update that can't be tested before hand and that is mandatory.
Just great.
Hahahahaha. This is like, the best "fuck you" they can possibly do for people who have really slow Internet connections. People living in rural areas probably didn't mind the smaller as-they-come updates, but these giant blobs are going to wind up doing the opposite of Microsoft's vision.
They deserve it, at least this time. I generally like the direction Microsoft is going, except their update policy. The cumulative updates for Windows 7 since June have screwed up Bluetooth and they even acknowledge it in their KB article. I would like to just uninstall the piece that has the bug, but I have to uninstall the whole rollup update.
Why can't Microsoft just open source everything and play nice with the development community without making me cringe every time their update policy changes?
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
It would have been nice if the submitter and Slashdot editor would have taken the time to actually read/report the rest of the blog posting:
"Security-only updates
Also from October 2016 onwards, Windows will release a single Security-only update. This update collects all of the security patches for that month into a single update. Unlike the Monthly Rollup, the Security-only update will only include new security patches that are released for that month"
That sounds like a good solution for the rest of us who don't want all of the other "performance improvement" patches.
Except that I have no use for the trash that Microsoft produces Once again, consider yourself middle-fingered, Microsoft.
I absolutely understand why you'd say that. I've done that. However, the first thing the bad guys do when they want to break into a system is check for unpatched software. If you're running versions with known vulnerabilities, that makes things really easy for the bad guys.
So what can you do? For me, I use Linux and OS X. Yeah, if you're the type of person who enjoys fiddling with the registry, there's a learning curve. On the other hand, if you normally open browser when you sit down at your computer, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera are pretty much the same on any desktop OS.
Supported, but the normal way. Not this crap.
Enterprise customers will still get to pick and choose updates, so likely it is only the "Windows Update" that will be the cumulative only package. You can still manually download individual patches (at least if you have paid support.)
I am still on 7 since I was able to pick and choose which updates to install. I don't want to go to 10, I have video cameras and software that hasn't been tested / approved on 10. I do as much as I can on Linux so I am down to one 7 machine. I wonder what fallout there will be when something doesn't work. Hopefully they get sued a lot. Really getting tired of their crap.
Linux forever!
Well, I never cared too much about those. But I did disable all updates about a month ago on my Windows7 and my GF Windows10 laptops. Why? They repeatedly fail to installed. Causing a loop of "using 100% CPU for about an hour, reboot, fail to install, reboot to roll back, and then using 100% CPU again the next day trying to install the update again."
After repeatedly fixing those updates, I gave up and just disabled all updates. (which was easy on Windows 7 and a pain in the ass on Windows 10)
I ask myself if Microsoft realizes that a coupe of million users still logs in via UMTS and connections not larger than 300 MB per month in total transfer volume?
I have such a case in my family and bring updates for windows via USB stick every once in a while (once per year) as there is no other way updating my mothers PC and she refuses to accept that i pay for her internet flat rate.
BTW, this is German 2016 and the reason is that internet of higher quality and volume is unattainable for a reasonable amount of money in her city which is the 10th largest in Germany as of March 2016. I need to add she is poor by international standards as roughly another 20% in Germany, but such news don't spread over the borders anyway, I guess America can sing a similar song.
I explained her that next time i come she will switch to Linux and we will have a Linux training session all over Christmas. Ye!
EULA is not going to protect them from the massive amount of damage they are about to unleash. Responsible companies will have to get off MS.
Why can't Microsoft just open source everything and play nice with the development community without making me cringe every time their update policy changes?
Because Microsoft is not in the business of giving anything away free (as in freedom or beer). The only reason it didn't cost you money to "upgrade" from win 7/8 to win10 is because win10 isn't the product, *you* are. Microsoft is in the business of wringing every spare dime out of every source they can get. Everything they do is with an eye towards that end. They gave up on selling an operating system to get money from you because as a target of advertising, you are worth far more to them than a measly hundred and fifty bucks every few years. The advertising revenue per person for targeted advertising like that provided by search and by those who control the OS, are worth several hundred dollars a year per computer in ad revenue.
TANSTAAFL
I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
I have thought long and hard as to what Microsoft must be thinking. I think I have finally figured it out. After all these years it finally occurred to them that Apple has the right idea. (Keep in mind I am not an Apple fan). Hear me out, this really makes sense. With as large of a user base on varied hardware that MS has accumulated over the years, it has become nearly impossible to cover all use cases. They figured out that if their user base was smaller and less varied in skill levels, they will not have to work nearly as hard at trying to put out acceptable software. Malware writers will turn towards attacking other platforms more because MS no longer is profitable for them due to the smaller user base. This left MS with a serious dilemma, how to reduce the user base while keeping the less skilled users. Their first plan was Windows 10, lets face it, anyone that knows anything about computers would NEVER use Windows 10. They figured offering a free upgrade would get EVERYONE to try it and those with half a brain would try to revert back to their previous systems which of course would fail leaving them the only option of either reinstalling Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 OR installing another platform. Those that went back to previous OS and those that didn't fall for the free downgrade, I mean upgrade, to Windows 10 and stayed with whatever version they already had were a much larger number than MS expected. This left MS to try to needle them into going elsewhere by trying to force telemetry etc down their throats. Alas, third party programmers messed that up for them by releasing tools to prevent it and or instructions as to how to do it manually.
Now, MS has had enough. They have decided it is time to force those users to leave the platform because they have demonstrated that they are the users that MS no longer wants. The easiest way to do that is to FORCE all users to accept whatever updates they send regardless of what it may or may not do. They know that enterprise users and power users which are no longer their target customers will never sit still for this. They know the first step will be turning off all updates. They also know that without updates, those users will be looking for a new platform. BAM, MS now has a smaller user base which is easier to manage and they don't have to worry about those Power Users changing the settings on that computer that apparently belongs to MS. They also will no longer have to worry about 3rd party programmers putting out software to compete with their useless programs anymore.
See, once you think about it, it all makes sense.
MS are running an 'exchange student' programme - 'bash' is available in Winloze, and now PowersHell is in Linuxland. How long before you need MS's monthly rollup to keep PowersHell running on your (previously more secure) Linux system? How many backdoors, spyware and malware vectors are being foisted on the FOSS community? MS's plan - take over Linux - servers first, as this is major competition for their own 1/2 baked sh!t.
Hahaha - captcha = "infects" .. I kid you not.
You can try running `sfc /scannow` in an admin console window. If it says it repaired corrupted entries, you can then try rerunning the patches (and run another `sfc /scannow`). No guarantees that it will resolve the problem, but that's Microsoft.
Thats all well and good that those who took advantage of the "free" Windows 10 are the "product" for MS to milk.. BUT.. Now that you actually have to *buy* Windows 10, these copies of Windows 10 are like the old versions, either you get it on a new machine or you buy a boxed retail disk or perhaps, for system builders, an OEM copy of it... People who have had to *buy* Windows 10 since the end of July have a seriously valid greivance against MS, and I'd be surprised if some very hungry lawfirm (or group of lawfirms) don't spin up a class action suit against MS for "double-dipping", namely datamining both "free" copies AND purchased copies... I'm sooo glad I gave up using MS products about 6 years ago, after using/supporting said products as a sysadmin for close to 20 years...
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
There are companies that sell and support GNU/Linux hardware today. It's not terribly hard to go and find hardware. ThinkPenguin's got hundreds of computers and peripherals that all work out of the box and unlike the majority of hardware on the market come with proper support so you don't have to worry about losing it during an upgrade.
There are also efforts to free us from the treachery of the few proprietary components that remain, but it's a bigger uphill battle. Intel and AMD are working against us instituting proprietary components on core components (ie the CPU). These components contain malicious software including remote control functionality. It's sold as being for corporations, but you can't disable it, you can't remove it, and even if there was a feasible means of reverse engineering it replacement firmware won't load as Intel/AMD are signing these components. We know for a fact that backdoors are being inserted into peripherals and computers alike. Where the US is forcing it into CPUs designed by American companies that ship with all modern laptop and desktop systems the Chinese are incorporating it into keyboard controller firmware (home grown ARM laptops, though there is a OS level component needed as well).
If you want NSA-free computers check out the effort to do that here: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eo... (there are already finished prototypes, the campaign is to bring a small number, 250-500 units into production, before a larger roll out, mass production can happen).
We control the vertical, the horizontal, and all your fucking updates. - Microsoft.
So much for trying to blacklist just the telemetry updates then...
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
I don't care about Windows 8 ot 10. Those users are already fucked with telemetry up their asses.
But don't fuck with Windows 7.
Germany might be a special case because of Störerhaftung, its presumption of liabilty of operators of open Wi-Fi hotspots for their users' infringing or otherwise illegal activity. In any other country, users who rely on UMTS, LTE, or satellite can take their laptops to a restaurant or public library to use unmetered Wi-Fi.
They are also releasing a Monthly Security Rollup that only includes security fixes. So you're choices are:
1. take only the security rollup
2. Take the monthly rollup that includes security and non-security related patches
3. Stop taking any windows updates
4. Stop using windows
I've already been testing whether or not I need Windows....
Their collected telemetry shows yes. Except that it's not stupidity, it's just that most people don't give a shit.
The current system has worked fine for a very long time, this is about people not installing windows 10 nagware updates
Quoting the parent comment, with modifications: We've seen Microsoft's continuous stream of lies and incompetence... including a number of "bugs" and "mistakes" that appear deliberate.
An article I wrote last year, Microsoft Windows XP "end of life", makes the point that Microsoft fixed 319+828+459=1,606 bugs in Windows XP since Windows XP SP1 was released. Now Microsoft says Windows XP is still too buggy to use. We have 16 computers running Windows XP and haven't had any problems. And software does not have an "end of life", it continues to do what it always did.
Why do Adobe Flash and the Windows operating system have so many vulnerabilities? Do Adobe Systems and Microsoft sell vulnerabilities to secret government agencies and fix them when they are publicly discovered?
Ideas:
1) Use Autopatcher until Microsoft's begins its new system of hiding even more completely what it is doing with its updates.
2) Don't allow any Microsoft operating system to have a connection to the internet. Use Linux on a separate computer on a separate network for internet connections. Use Bluetooth to communicate between the Windows OS network and the Linux network.
I was thinking the same thing. My corp is very picky as to what updates they pushed. I'm wondering if MS has a plan in case they get push back. I get very annoyed with MS because just when they look like they are finally getting it they do something bone headed like this.
they should try making the telemetry update not suck massive hairy balls
because when i have it, every reboot, my hard drive goes absolutely crazy and the computer is unusable for at least 5 minutes, and if you uninstall it it works again and the hard drive doest sping like a helicopter on coke
i dont care about their spying per se, but when those patches screw with the proper operation of the system then i dont install them, not because of the spying, because they are SHIT patches
maybe you guys are using ssds and stuff like that but i have a pc from 2008, its probably not even the latest sata version, but the diagtrack update (the telemetry one) totally destroys the computer for 5 minutes after every reboot
the problem with microsoft goes way beyond their retarded poo in the loo level decissions, they cant make their stuff work properly either, I mean even with a system that spies on people and has a terrible gui or whatever, if everthing works, it has value, but their stuff is subpar to the point they can release a free operating system and most of their users prefer to use older operating systems
its a massive epic fail anyway you look at it
and how they fuck are you gonna enforce it, and m constantly now having an urge to beat up microsoft people and americans ...see what your doing.....your turning me into a terrorist OHHHH NOOOO
BUY windows 10 ...We know your a retard if you want our software , so don't worry we'll spy on everything for you....place a camera n and have it rotate and we'll even watch your wife and kids cause we gotz perverts too
the entire win 10 OS is a virus why the hell would i ever want that.....EVER you could make 7 slower then windows 1 , id still never want it....9 or 8
Before MS started trying to force Win 10 upgrades, I did the following:
- used Win 7 SP1 and allowed it to update
- recommended Win 7 to people
- played with Linux and OpenBSD but didn't use it for my daily driver
After MS pulled the Win 7 telemetry update shit and tried to force Win 10 upgrades deceptively:
- switched my main box to ESXi with a Xubuntu and OpenBSD 5.9 system that I alternate between
- recommend Linux Mint and other Ubuntu flavors to anyone who asks
- show people how Win 10 is likely spying on them (wireshark packet capture data with hundreds of TLS connections to MS servers, sending large amounts of data)
- won't use Win 7 again after learning that they're going to try to shove telemetry updates and other badware down users' throats like in Win 10
- might use a pirated Win 10 install vlanned off onto its own quarantine vlan to play games (not even browse)
I'm guessing there's a fuckload of people like me who reached the limit of what we'll tolerate from MS. Good job, Satya.
my friend Mr. firewall would like to have a discussion with you.
Non sequitur: Your facts are uncoordinated.
With this kind of attitude, I think its probably a good time for a non-microsoft influenced operating system to make its move into microsoft's bread and butter.
Non sequitur: Your facts are uncoordinated.
Some of our Windows systems that run proprietary software are only allowed to have updates approved by the respective vendors or our service contract for that system can be voided.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
Looks like securing Win 10 and making sure all your drivers and applications to work flawlessly is already an impossible task with Windows 10.
But would be very easy to do with Ubuntu or Mint. Linux being more user friendly than Windows these days.
I guess they really didn't like people removing telemetry KB updates.
I forget which of the "improving the update experience" updates it was, but it was in my optional updates, and I selected it and told Windows to hide it. It was back the next day (I'd applied updates to RDP, and some follow-on updates came down immediately, dragging the telemetry crap with it).
Some of our Windows systems that run proprietary software are only allowed to have updates approved by the respective vendors or our service contract for that system can be voided
And those lazy vendors are now forced to support cumulative updates because there literally will not be any other choice. Don't you see? Those vendors are the ones that are now being bitchslapped into submission and forced to keep up. They will have no choice but to approve the cumulative updates because that is how to keep systems security. Their 'we have control' mentality is being kicked to the curb.
(However, it is easier for them - no longer do they have to pick and choose what to support, they merely have "Windows 7." Hopefully, it means everyone will have the same C++ runtime, for example, the same .Net framework etc. etc.)
Microsoft fired a huge number of their testers about a year ago. They probably finally figured out that they can't do reliable compatibility testing with their current manpower so now they are trying to reduce their costs by reducing the number if in-the-field configurations that they have to support. Unfortunately this will really hit 3rd party business app developers who were able to disable individual updates when they unexpectedly killed their app until they found a fix. In the end this may actually backfire if. Given a choice between killing a critical line of business app or disabling updates guess what most businesses will do. To reduce outage potential from MS updates I suspect many more developers (I already have a few) will now release their own (delayed) update schedule in order to make sure that nothing MS did will kill their programs. And that will leave businesses unprotected for longer period of times until each of their critical software venders give them the go-ahead for the next update.
I can't wait to see them bringing Law suits against End Users for Blocking their Patches and Ads.. "stealing Windows Leased operating systems"
The NSA is probably kicking their ass behind the scenes cos they're not doing a good enough job keeping to the terms of the NSL.
the monthly patch includes Windows 10 - whether you want it or not?
I think I'm better off taking my chances with malware than allowing Microsoft to put anything they want on my computer without me having any ability to know what it is, so I'm going to stop applying updates. I think I'll run Outlook and my browser in something like Sanboxie instead. It's really sad when you can't trust your OS vendor not to plant spyware and adware on your computer, just like the rest of the bad guys do, but Windows 10 has shown us that's that situation we now face. My longer term goal is to switch completely to Linux (I use Linux for certain things but not as my day to day desktop or laptop), but that's going to take some time. One thing is for sure though, I'm not buying any more Microsoft operating systems. I'll keep Windows 7 around in some form, even if it ends up as a virtual machine under Linux where I can control its network access, until I can come up with a good replacement for Outlook as an Exchange client, but I'm not going to get anything new.
Microsoft no longer has it's retail customers best interests in mind. Instead, it sees them as a source of personal data to mine and a source of ad revenue, nothing more.
...is too damn high.
Do you realize how much testing must go in to checking that all possible combinations of patches work correctly together? This is clearly just cutting the costs of supporting older systems. Now there are no combinations, since each patch gets Windows to the same state, so they only have to test one thing a month. This also means they can test it properly, so you have lower probability that installing a patch breaks your system, which means lower support costs as well.
This is consistent with their effort to move everyone to the latest Windows version, so they don't have to support Windows 7 for 15 years like they had to with Windows XP. They have clearly checked their accounting and found how much money is being spent because of the complicated way they support old versions, and now they are decreasing those costs.
Also, this is the exact same way most other companies release updates. You don't see Adobe giving you the option of selecting which individual DLLs you want to patch in Photoshop. Microsoft is just moving towards the same patching plan other companies already use.
Sometimes I wonder if any Slashdot readers work in actual software companies. Because if you have real world experience with software development, you understand why this is done.
(I am not assiciated with Microsoft in any way)
I think you missed my point. I did that, and all the other hoops you need to go trough when updates fail. It's the frequency and the amount of different hoops I had to jump trough that caused me to say "screw this".
I have one Windows computer that is controlling my 3D printer. Lucky enough the drivers and Simplify3D work perfect under Linux. So - that's one down.
My second Windows computer is running music software (Cubase, Omnisphere 2 etc.), that also can be run on OSX. So - setting aside some money monthly until I can afford a suitable MAC. That'' s the second one.
That only lefts me with my main system that is already in dual-boot with Linux. It's only dual boot because I want to runs some games that are (not yet) ported to Steam-Linux. The Windows in dual boot has no access to my main (Ext4) hard drives and my data. I don't use it for mail or anything important, so they can "telemetry" the hell out of it, but they won't get anything beyond (some of) the games I play.
Once the transition is complete (what won't take that much time), I will be able to relax again. Microsoft can put his policy's in a place where the sun has no access.
The man who coined that acronym also wrote stories in which the hero typically was on a quest to find a new planet or other venue, or some new subversive or revolutionary paradigm to evade the grasp of the exchange brokers, beancounters, bureaucrats, and the marketers (collectively, the Borg) and the Usurians pulling the strings behind the scenes. Furthermore, the lost time and productivity to keep these parasites in control and selling your eyeballs costs us, individually and collectively, much more than several hundred per year per seat, I'd wager.
There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but you can avoid the worst of the hidden costs by using systems and software freely and collaboratively developed.
I shouldn't have to point this out on /.
I really wonder if this would go well with major corporations since they usually pick only individual updates and exclude some that may cause interference with other systems.
People keep bringing up corporations with this concern.
I think it's rather obvious at this point what Microsoft's end goal is, so they have penned a formal response to "corporations" who have to be e-blackmailed into upgrading to Windows 10, which IS the ultimate (borg) goal; "Fuck you very much and have a Nice Day."
The most annoying thing to me is that it *doesn't* sit at 100% for hours. I have a 6-core CPU, and it sits at 16% for hours because the update process, whatever it is doing, is doing it as a single thread. Obviously it can't take advantage of multiple cores.
I always equivocate. Well, almost always.
Not noted in the Slashdot entry is that after the October takeover of PC ownership via Windows Update is that Microsoft is going to backport the hotfixes into the mass monthly updates (and presumably remove those hotfixes from availability afterwards).
The consequence of this is that soon you will not be able to do a fresh install of 7 or 8.x and install only the hotfixes you want to get them up to (pre Oct 2016) as the old hot-fixes are going away too. If you're stuck using Windows better get your all your systems that you want to use imaged with all versions of pre Win 10 and updated (with the bad data monitoring hotfixes kept out) prior to the October updated. Windows 7 security updates were to go through 2020 and 8.1 through 2023.
It also appears there might be a method going forward for the true nutwads (like myself - I want the gaming - Linux partitions now though) and that will be to turn off Windows Update and use the Windows Update catalog site (a horrible MS site - at this point its a screen with a search window in it) to get security only updates...no details on how that will work, other than its mentioned in Microsoft's official announcement. For the general public though, Microsoft takes over control of their computers and will install user monitoring in the next months if they use Windows Update.
If you read the announcement you'll see that the old hotfixes (including the user data monitoring ones, if they aren't in the October push already) will get backported, over time, into the massive monthly update. The obvious consequence of this is that those old hotfixes will go away as they are backported and no longer be available to users.
I wouldn't count on those hotfixes being around, better create reference Win 7 / 8 images with updates prior to the October takeover for all your machines, turn off WU and back them up. As we've seen Microsoft's condensed Windows 7 up to date patch includes the user data monitoring updates, no reason to expect they'll stop that after they make everyone's PC's their 8itches next month.
This avenue won't be available via Windows Update & us a PR cover - most folks won't be able to do it. You have to go to a Microsoft website that consists of an empty page and a search bar and enter the security only patch you want to download. I'll do this, but most users would never what to put in to start with.
While Microsoft's PR group would agree with what you said, if you look at most other PC OS's it doesn't work this way. Over on Apple in Mac OS X, they separate their security updates out from their other patches (and they don't have back ported data monitoring patches from Windows 10 in there). Over in OS X there isn't data monitoring to begin with. And the stuff that goes up to the cloud can be turned off with 2 checkboxes. Over in Linux you can do whatever you want.
The other side of this is that Microsoft will still have to test each fix individually prior to them going into a monthly lump - this is why they got rid of the service pack because of the double testing - in the end there will be little reduction in testing costs.
This is all about turning personal PC's into Microsoft's data monitoring tool which is worth alot of money to Microsoft for each personal PC every year - giving them control over your PC's data like an Android smartphone. As someone else noted the user data monitoring in Windows 10 and backported to Windows 7 & 8 in prior hotfixes (which could be avoided) is worth alot of money every year and after the October takeover Microsoft is gradually going to roll in the old hotfixes into the monthly updates over time and eliminate them. Microsoft's recent history requires no paranoia at all - they actively choose this for their customers:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...
https://www.theguardian.com/wo...
"Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will now only have two choices"
One choice, two options...
TANSTAAFL -- What a bullshit saying. You must be a Capricorn.
That's who this is targeted at.
Major corporations are ignoring critical security updates, and getting machines turned into zombies because of it. This is going to put a stop to that shit.
Somebody sue these bastards already.
Windows 7 users had to pay for their operating system.
One day, this "cumulative update" will leave the PC as a win10 machine.
Well, that news is a bit of satisfaction to me.
For I still run Windows XP.
just use "wsus offline client" and make yourself an archive of KB's and installation script.
I am so sad to see it come to such a painful end. I actually bought Windows 1.0, which was not very impressive, in my youth and have had a machine running a Windows version ever since. I did managed to skip the most disastrous versions (ME, Vista, Bob and friends) and as a result had a pretty good run. By Windows 7 it had finally become a stable workhorse OS that, for a time, served me well as its owner and master.
With Windows 8.x and then 10 it became evident that Windows as an OS no longer served me as its (paid and rightful) owner but instead answered to an increasingly malevolent master who was working against my will and interests. Its aim was nothing other than to harvest and sell me, my identity, my movements, my thoughts, my keystrokes, as a product like any other meat based commodity. I knew I could not in good conscious willingly give myself over to such abuses. I concluded that Windows 7 would be my last Windows and in my personal view was THE last Windows as I knew the product all these years, with the things that came after no longer sharing a common purpose with those that came before.
The only more nefarious and abusive thing they could possibly do was to take the Windows 7 the I own now away from me. The tried heartily to wear me down with deceptive pop-ups and then with malicious corrupting patches but, through great effort, I diligently thwarted them all. Now it seems the end has come, my paid copy of Windows 7 Professional will be corrupted by force or left to wither and be ravaged by wild dogs and the NSA in what I personally view to be a heinous crime against all humanity.
As a long term Microsoft customer, the sentiment I now associate most with the company is betrayal.
Good idea! Autopatcher saves Windows updates, also.
Windows 7 and Windows 8 users will now only have two choices: stop updating completely and leave your computers vulnerable to security holes, or accept everything single thing Microsoft sends you whether you want it or not and leave your computers vulnerable to new security holes.
There, fixed that for you...
God I wish I could give it up. Every month it seems Microsoft/Windows are becoming more and more like a disease. I'm stuck with too much software that simply doesn't run on anything else.. A huge amount of money to throw away .. a choice between Linux and OSX in the near future maybe.. Used Linus years ago at uni - gritting my teeth already. :)
Below the speed of light Special Relativity is one of the most accurate theories in physics - above the speed of light..
So, what about these updates that MS releases that cause bugs and BS? I've had updates applied to a server that cause the whole network to basically go non-functional. That was just a single update, too! This is just crap news.
Thanks, MS. BTW, looks like all of the Windows 7 people who didn't want to make the switch are in basically the same boat, now. You all had to know you weren't safe from this type of tyranny. Hence why the rest of us said, "Fine. We'll get the free upgrade and not have to pay $200 later to stay in support for longer."
Not that I didn't like Windows 7...Just saying. We are all in the same Microsoft boat, Windows 7 or not.
Astrology -- what a bullshit myth. You must be gullible.
Any large publicly traded corporation has HUGE incentive to get it right, and keep your PC and data safe from malicious actors. With media markets driven by clicks, and an army of lawyers itching to use the words, "class action". I understand and agree with the FOSS communities, and am grateful they are there, but I am also pleased with the MS platforms I manage single-handedly with over 400 users. MS is the least of my problems.