Windows Defender Will Soon Start Removing Applications With Coercive Messaging: Cleaners and Optimizers Put on Notice (cso.com.au)

Microsoft is stepping up its efforts to protect Windows users from programs that use fear to convince people to buy or upgrade products. From a report: The Redmond company is taking aim at all software that use scary messaging to convince people to upgrade to a paid product that purportedly fixes a problem detected by a free version. Specifically it is targeting registry cleaners and optimizers, which Microsoft previously didn't endorse but also didn't blacklist them as unwanted programs or malware. That's changing on March 1. "We find this practice problematic because it can pressure customers into making unnecessary purchase decisions," said Barak Shein, a member of the Windows Defender security research team. From March 1 Microsoft's Windows Defender and other security products will "classify programs that display coercive messages as unwanted software, which will be detected and removed," Shein said.

Comments

Will it remove Windows 10?

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's start with that and see where it takes us.

Re:Will it remove Windows 10?

[DarkRookie]

That is the question.
The OS does the same thing as these pieces of software.

Re: Will it remove Windows 10?

[BenFranske]

Yeah, you're not the target audience and are probably not going to be installing shady registry cleaners and system optimization utilities anyway. Are you also saying we as a society shouldn't try and shut down sketchy con-artist retailers because you're not stupid enough to fall for what they're selling and should be able to waste your money if you want to? Sometimes there are larger social issues at work than just you. You can always turn off Windows Defender if you don't like what it's doing...or run another OS if you prefer.

Re:Will it remove Windows 10?

[Khyber]

" was on W10 but the updates kept removing the USB device drivers for observatory equipment and replacing it with a 'newer' generic that knew nothing about the gear."

Is your IT staff so incompetent as to not know that you use the "have disk" driver update option and point specifically to the .inf file to force usage of drivers other than generics, since this has kinda been the standard since XP?

Right-click start button>Device Manager>Imaging Devices>right-click your observatory equipment (since you're just using a digital telescope, right?)>Update Driver software>Browse My Computer for Driver>Let me Pick from a list of device drivers>Have Disk.

Bam, now your stuff will show up. You might have to disable driver signature enforcement (which requires you to rebot first before installing the driver) but it works, and always has worked, since XP.

Re: Will it remove Windows 10?

[rogoshen1]

You can always turn off Windows Defender if you don't like what it's doing

For now.

The windows update bullshit shows where they'd like to go with this. Start small, get users accustomed to the 'user experience improvements', then continually encroach.
But basically, MS wants to control your computer, and turn it into a conveyance for advertising, or into a platform for gathering data-- er.. sorry, telemetry about you and your computing habits.

Because one Google was not enough for this world.

Re: Will it remove Windows 10?

[CaptainDork]

And answer the goddam phone.

I called 7 times and left 4 messages, "Hi, this is Windows. I be calling you sir to tell that virus infect computer. Allow me to connect long distance and removing infected for $89 dollaros, US, please or your license will escape."

Not enough

[duke_cheetah2003]

If it were me, I'd configure Windows Defender to flag all third party malware/virus remove trash as malware themselves. Snakeoil all of it. Outright theft and preying on the weak minded with fear.

Re:Not enough

[duke_cheetah2003]

Eh, that's mostly bullshit, you're lumping all A/V or 3rd party security products with the worst offenders.

They're all garbage. Even Windows Defender. But at least Windows Defender doesn't try to milk you for $$$.

The best security protect available is simply training users how to identify bullshit when it comes and how to react to it.

In my 25+ years of using computers, I have first-hand experienced ONLY ONE virus. ONE. In 25 years. The only thing I've ever seen a malware/virus scanner ever report as a problem is keygens and an IRC script, which were not really threats. That one virus did not come from a website, download, or anything like that. Some 'friend' sent me a file over an instant message program and that file was infected.

Re:Not enough

[duke_cheetah2003]

I'm with you on the "general" need for A/V *IF AND ONLY IF* you have best-practice safe browsing and avoid obvious pitfalls - however that's NOT ALL WINDOWS USERS!

Which is why I am one of those exceptionally evil people who believe you should have a license, training and certification to be allowed near ANY computer device. We require it for amateur radio, driving a car, practicing medicine, law, etc. Should need a license to use a computer too, so you know what the fuck you're doing. It's at a point where irresponsible usage of a computer HARMS OTHERS.

Re:Not enough

[eaglesrule]

So you're the exception, rather than the rule. For those in support roles for large organizations, dealing with malware is a daily occurrence. There is only so many screws to tighten security wise until users become frustrated and angry.

Since there is no perfect security, there has to be a multi layered approach and A/V is one of these layers that provides herd immunity with hourly updates as threats are identified.

MS providing an ineffective AV solution won't really affect their bottom line. A vendor whose business model and reputation is staked on it might approach the product differently.

Re:Not enough

[TheRaven64]

That used to be an argument, but in the last couple of years the major AV vendors have all shipped serious vulnerabilities. My favourite was in the Symantec product, which decided that the best place to put code that decoded images and scanned them was in the kernel. It would do this as soon as an image appeared in the filesystem, so if you went to a web page and your browser cached the image locally, or if you received an email with an image attachment and your mail client stored it to disk, the scanner would run. This sounds almost useful, and would have been if the thing dealing with the untrusted (and assumed to be at least potentially malicious) data had been in an unprivileged process with read-only access to the data and the ability to write a single bit of state outside. Unfortunately, it wasn't, and when someone found a vulnerability in the image decoder, it became possible to run arbitrary code in kernel space simply by persuading the user to store an image on their disk (which a lot of programs did automatically in response to network events).

I think you're probably better off with the vulnerabilities that Windows ships with than those, minus a small chance that you'll be protected from exploits, plus the ones that these clowns introduce.

Will it stop APK

[Anonymous Coward]

Will Windows Defender protect me from APK and his spamming? Does it protect me from his hosts file manipulations?

Bundled Avast on my Win10?

[Train0987]

The Win10 that came on my HP laptop was bundled with Avast that throws the same scary "You may be infected! Upgrade Today!" messages. I jumped through hoops to remove it completely and then sometime last week it came back all on its own after a forced Windows Update.

Re:Bundled Avast on my Win10?

[Anonymous Coward]

You can thank HP for that, not Microsoft. Next time buy Asus or Acer (maybe even Fujitsu, Microsoft or even MSI), and remove all the useless "branding" software and tools.

Re:Bundled Avast on my Win10?

[ryanmc1]

I always wipe and reinstall with a clean version of Windows when I get a new computer. No exceptions. The drivers are easily found online and I make a backup disk or backup USB of the drivers incase something happens. This has made things much more enjoyable with the laptops I buy. With Windows 10 this is super easy because Microsoft provides a software package that will create an installer for you, and because Win10 registers itself online with your hardware specs you don't even need a key. It really is easy and I highly recommend it.

Re:Bundled Avast on my Win10?

[l0n3s0m3phr34k]

It's still super-difficult to remove all of M$'s "AppX" crap. Even after running a 50-line Powershell script for both AppX and AppXPackages, my syspreped image updated itself and re-installed DuoLingo, Pandora, MSN News, etc. At least the Cortana removal seems to stick. I'm working on some GPO's to keep it all off, but its all TOTAL BULLSHIT.

Why is God's name does my "Enterprise" OS come with Xbox shit that is "part of the OS" and unremovable? We are trying to make Win10E NIST 800-171 compliant, and I doubt there is any way in HELL to get it 800-53 compliant.

There are rumors of a DoD-level "version" of Win10, that I assume M$ handed it's source code to the Feds and said "here, do with it what you need" to get it complaint. Of course, the rest of the population still has to deal with their advertising, "pushed apps", and more showing up.

Oh, the irony!

[jenningsthecat]

With all the bullshit Microsoft pulled to both manipulate and coerce users into upgrading to their rented-spyware-posing-as-an-OS, this is really rich. OTOH I kinda get it, from the organized-crime / extortionist view that says "get offa my turf, punk!"

self censorship

[rraylion]

It would be great if it got rid of those annoying Microsoft ads that come up. Or if you are one of those unlucky people with home edition the mandatory upgrades that force your computer to close, even if you don't want to install it.

But hey i'm acting like I own my computer, I forgot I am really leasing it from the OS.

Edge and Cortana

[vux984]

Dear Microsoft,

Really looking forward to this feature in Defender. I hate that coercive messaging stuff. I can't wait for it to remove Edge and Cortana from my system.

Thanks