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Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps On My PC Without Asking (howtogeek.com)
Chris Hoffman, writing for How To Geek: I'm getting sick of Windows 10's auto-installing apps. Apps like Facebook are now showing up out of nowhere, and even displaying notifications begging for me to use them. I didn't install the Facebook app, I didn't give it permission to show notifications, and I've never even used it. So why is it bugging me? Windows 10 has always been a little annoying about these apps, but it wasn't always this bad. Microsoft went from "we pinned a few tiles, but the apps aren't installed until you click them" to "the apps are now automatically installed on your PC" to "the automatically installed apps are now sending you notifications." It's ridiculous.
If you are still using Microsoft Windows... I feel sorry for you.
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Stop installing Facebook on my phone without me agreeing with that.
But you know what? You can uninstall Facebook app from Windows. Hell, you can uninstall Windows altogether from your PC and still have a usable PC. But I can't uninstall Facebook from my Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) and I sure as hell can't uninstall Android from it.
So who's the greater evil?
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
I haven't noticed this behavior yet and don't use any apps on my new machine. (Since it's new, it comes with Win 10. Of course, I'm using Linux for work.)
Do the apps run in the background if I never open them and use Classic menu? Do they show notifications if I turn notifications off?
Only apps can app apps, and Appsoft apping apps while apping other apps just makes Appdows 10 even appier! Only LUDDITES hate apps, because they're too stupid to know how to app apps while apping other apps!
Apps!
How do you mean? "Your Computer"?!? You misunderstand, if you run Windows 10 it isn't your computer. It's a machine you may be allowed to use, perhaps, and only the way Microsoft likes it.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
I agree that auto installing or uninstalling apps is completely unacceptable. However, I've been using Windows 10 for about a year now and this has never happened to me once. Is there some hidden "stop being an arsehole" option which needs to be set?
What sort of "geek" is it, that installs Windows in the first place?
And, after they do, "blogs" about it?
And what sort of a "news for nerds" web-site publicizes such nonsense?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
A lot of people aren't paying for it. Loads of gamer types who build their own PC are using unactivated Windows 10, something they would have had to use hacks to be able to do with XP.
So MS have loosened up the rules on paying for the OS but at the same time monetized app auto installs. Consider. If you buy a PC it comes with a load of crapware preinstalled - Norton Internet Security, Anti virus and so on. Most of those are trials - after a month or so they prompt you for a credit card to get a subscription. Now some percentage of PC users will dumbly hand over their credit card, and some percentage will work out they can uninstall it and use Windows Defender instead.
So each machine with trial software on it will generate a certain amount of revenue for the software vendor. Which means the software vendor can pay PC vendors to install trial software.
People have argued that the price of the trial ware knocked off a significant percentage of the cost of a Windows licence in volume. The problem from MS's perspective is that all the cash went to the vendor and WIndows got poor reputation for performance because things like Norton Internet Security absolutely killed performance.
Now with WIndows 10 and push installs MS have a chance to get in on the act. Some software vendor can do a deal where they pay MS to push install their software.
PC vendors probably won't get to install Windows for free though - there's no reason for MS to allow that and it would kill their revenue. However people building their own machines will probably get to use unactivated windows for free. Possibly MS will segregate things so that unactivated windows will get software pushed while corporate machines where the company pays a per seat license will not. I.e. 'free' windows can be monetized in a way that doesn't require the users pay a fee.
Or maybe they'll sell Microsoft Insecticide
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Things like this erode trust and perceived reliability.
Are you kidding? Trust in Microsoft vanished a long long time ago for most of us here, and "perceived reliability" barely ever existed. These are little more than expected amusements for those of us who haven't touched Microsoft in decades.
All the remaining users don't have any trust, they either have stockholm syndrome or are fully aware of the level of shit they put up with but have no other choice for pragmatic or technical competency reasons (I say this with no judgement, you guys have been fucked for a _long_ time and I feel sorry for you). Even those who switch to Apple just have a different kind of shit to put up with these days.
It does seem incongruous that MS has tried everything possible to get people to move from Windows 7 down to Windows 10, but then they do things like this which degrade the customer experience.
Indeed. When the observable behaviour of your legitimate software is becoming indistinguishable from the observable behaviour of malware, at some point you have to look in the mirror and say maybe you're the problem.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Malware exploits for profit. Windows 10 exploits for profit and charges for the privilege. Malware writers, take note.
maybe you're the problem.
No, you're the product.
This type of thing is exactly why Microsoft did everything possible to get people to move to Win10. They intended to monetize it in other ways that would give them a steadier/larger stream of income going forward.
As operating systems get more stable there are fewer reasons for the consumer to upgrade while Microsoft still has the task of keeping up security updates, etc. Eventually this would lead to declining revenues and the inability to support future development, not to mention allow Linux to make inroads. By restructuring to a walled garden where they're in control of your system they can monetize the hell out of you, EULA away your privacy rights, and be laughing well into the future.
If Linux development can ever get it's head out of it's ass and focus on how to make it easier for users to recover from problems without resetting everything they'd probably have a shot at taking away a big chunk of users who don't want to deal with MS' new direction.
Most all those users have all been taken away already, by Apple.
Sure, theirs is also a walled garden, but at least the experience is user-friendly and not user-hostile.
Besides, this article is a non-story. Every version of Windows has always shipped with a few annoying default settings, go in and turn that crap off - problem solved.
RTFA. The point of the article is that you can't do exactly what you suggest people do. Per the article:
There is, technically, a way to disable this and stop Windows from installing these appsbut it’s only for Windows 10 Enterprise and Education users. Even if you spent $200 for a Windows 10 Professional license because you want to use your PC for business, Microsoft won’t let you stop the “Consumer Experience” on a professional PC.
The group policy or registry setting that disables this feature originally worked on Windows 10 Home and Professional in the November 2015 update when Microsoft originally added the Consumer Experience. But Microsoft went out of their way to make Home and Professional ignore this setting in the Anniversary Update. Now, only Enterprise and Education respect that preference.
So unless you buy the enterprise edition of Windows (Cost: $84 per PC, per year, minimum 5 licenses), or are attending a university that will enable you to obtain the Education edition on windows (Cost: averages about $9,970 per year) you can't even do what you suggest. Windows explicitly ignores the settings that turns this functionality off.
Yes. Not only is the behavior of Microsoftware just as unacceptable as the more typical malware, but it also teaches ordinary users to just click through and accept malware because it acts just like Microsoftware does. Microsoft is training users that malware behavior is normal.
So move to another OS like Mac, Linux, etc.?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).