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Microsoft Will Never Again Sneakily Force Windows Downloads on Users (betanews.com)
A reader shares a report Windows users in Germany were particularly unimpressed when Microsoft forcibly downloaded many gigabytes of files to upgrade from Windows 7 and 8 to Windows 10. Having held out for 18 months, and losing its case twice, Microsoft has finally agreed to stop its nefarious tactics. After a lengthy battle with Germany's Baden-Wurtenberg consumer rights center, Microsoft made the announcement to avoid the continuation of legal action. A press release on the Baden-Wurtenberg website reveals that Microsoft has announced it will no longer download operating system files to users' computers without their permission: Microsoft will not download install files for new operating systems to a user system's hard disk without a user's consent. The consumer rights center hoped for this resolution to be reached much sooner, but Microsoft's decision will please the courts and could have a bearing on how the company acts in other countries.
And we made sure of this because we locked up the fuckers responsible.
Right??
honest injun we wont!
You can trust us this time. Honest! We have changed.
There are no demands to make up for all of the inconvenience, wasted time, overages on bandwidth, etc?
Slap on the wrist...
Twinstiq, game news
Microsoft Will Again Sneakily Force Windows Downloads on Users
because let's be real, they've got a track record.
I wonder if this will be implemented globally, or whether there will be a "Windows 10 G" edition. Windows N and Windows KN editions for South Korea and the EU were created to remove Media Player and force the user to make a browser choice before IE is turned on by default.
Some people were beyond pissed when this happened, so maybe they'll just cut their losses and do it across the board. The sneaky upgrade dialog was the thing I wasn't happy about, but I'm sure there are some people out there who are very privacy-minded, and any files they didn't explicitly ask for are a no-go for them. I work with people all over the world, and the EU and Germany in particular has some of the strictest privacy laws. 99% of the information harvesting that your average one-trick web startup gets away with in the US is just forbidden by law there. Facebook and Google are constantly lobbying to have the rules not apply to them because their business model falls apart without full access to people's data.
Sue to extend this to system updates so MS is forced to restore the previous functionality that was available to users.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Germans complain about Microsoft and come back proclaiming "Peace for our time".
Have gnu, will travel.
They said (emphasis mine):
Microsoft will not download install files for new operating systems to a user system’s hard disk without a user's consent.
How about you just don't upload or download anything without the user's consent?
They really need a clear definition of "consent" because from what I remember just hitting the "X" on the upgrade Window instead of "Cancel" was actually considered consent by MS. It's purposefully misleading and you know they'll do it again with Windows 11 or whatever bullshit name they call it.
Microsoft will never sneakily force updates on users through large downloads and only in Germany
FTFY
I seem to recall them claiming (a year or so ago?) that Windows 10 would be the last version of Windows, it's rolling updates from here on out. In which case this announcement is a completely meaningless way to duck punishment - they promise to no longer download files for a new operating system... because they will no longer release new operating systems. Just massive updates to their only one.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
UPDATED EULA VERSION
By using the software you hereby consent to ....
....
.... [ 25 pages later ]
....
Your computer automatically downloading and installing updates for bugfixes, security patches, and operating system upgrades with no further notification required, with no guarantee of visible a UI indication, options dialog, or other opportunity being provided defer, pause, cancel, undo, revert, or to opt-out of this process of automatic self-updating.
Microsoft Will Never Again Sneakily Force Windows Downloads on Users
Ya got that right! - Ex-Windows user
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act
TLDR? From the first paragraph of the wikipedia summary:The law prohibits accessing a computer without authorization, or in excess of authorization.
Putting file on a computer for the purpose of an unrequested upgrade certainly seems to be 'in excess of authorization', especially when you factor in the several million counts of it. The people who authorized this decision are CRIMINALS.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
>> There was no way to stop that crap.
Of course there is !
1) push the power button for about 5 sec.
2) plug in LinuxMint USB drive
3) start up, click install
4) Crap is stopped.
aaaaaaa
They probably won't have to. Unless MS has a dazzling, amazing plan for bolstering their store offerings, Win10S is likely to be close to DOA. Windows' main ability to keep users is the fact that so many users are already running Windows and won't (or far more often, can't) switch all of their apps to a competitor.
If MS kills their own compatibility benefits, it undermines a lot of the reason people have stick with their platform through all of the shit they pulled with Vista's compatibility disaster, Win8's UI disaster and now Win10's privacy concerns (not quite to disaster level like those other two since it doesn't really affect day-to-day work for the most part, but there's still a lot of awareness and distrust of it.)
I don't know if MS is just so egotistical that they assume all developers would rebuild all of their apps with UWP, or if they're so naive as to think their users don't care about non-UWP apps, or if they're so blind that they think their store has wide enough app coverage, but in any of those cases my guess is that they're wrong and they're risking their core business on a walled garden without many flowers.
Basically, if I'm going to be essentially switching to a new platform and forced to give up all of my apps anyway, why would I choose Windows over Apple or Linux? Sure some people will stick with Windows purely out of familiarity even if they lose access to their non-Store software, but that's not nearly as big of an incentive to stick with MS as you know.. not losing access to that software.
One legal reason why most software EULAs aren't enforceable in Germany:
If someone buys Windows from some retailer, the buyer enters into a contract with that retailer.
Any additional crap one party wants to enforce has to be made part of that contract; if the EULA isn't made explicitly a part of that contract, it's not enforceable:
If the seller hides a piece of paper with additional terms the customer doesn't know about somewhere in the box, then those terms aren't enforceable afterwards; and putting a sticker on the box a la "by opening the box, you agree to the unknown terms hidden inside" has been ruled to be a waste of sticker materials.
But the most important bit:
If the customer doesn't buy directly from MS (i.e. if MS isn't that retailer), then MS is not a party in that deal and has no say whatsoever regarding its terms
The customer enters into a contract with the retailer and nobody else.
There's no business relationship being established between the customer and MS just because MS happens to be the manufacturer of a product which the customer bought from somebody else.